“At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
Parallel Translations
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“At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
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And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
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And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (42)
Passages linked to Daniel 12:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 30:7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he will be saved out of it.
- Matthew 24:21 for then there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.
- Mark 13:19 For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be.
- Revelation 16:17-21 The seventh poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as has not happened since there were men on the earth, so great an earthquake, and so mighty. The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for this plague is exceedingly severe.
- Luke 21:23-24 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
- Daniel 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but, behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I remained there with the kings of Persia.
- Daniel 10:21 But I will tell you that which is inscribed in the writing of truth. There is no one who holds with me against these, but Michael your prince.
- Revelation 12:7 There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war.
- Revelation 20:12 I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
- Revelation 20:15 If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
- Ezekiel 13:9 “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who utter lying divinations. They will not be in the council of my people, neither will they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither will they enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”
- Daniel 9:12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem.
- Hosea 3:4-5 For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols. Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.
- Luke 10:20 Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
- Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
- Exodus 32:32-33 Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.
- Psalms 56:8 You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your container. Aren’t they in your book?
- Psalms 69:28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
- Isaiah 4:3 It will happen that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem,
- Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
- Isaiah 11:11-16 It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim. They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them. Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
- Isaiah 26:20-21 Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past. For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.
- Isaiah 27:12-13 It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel. It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
- Daniel 9:25-26 “Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times. After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will be even to the end. Desolations are determined.
- Amos 9:11-15 In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this. “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says Yahweh your God.
- Romans 11:5-6 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
- Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood—
- Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.
- Daniel 11:45 He will plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
- Joel 3:16-21 Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel. “So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more. It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim. Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”
- Obadiah 1:17-21 But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions. The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau.” Indeed, Yahweh has spoken. Those of the South will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead. The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev. Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be Yahweh’s.
- Romans 11:15 For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
- Romans 11:26 and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
- Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
- Philippians 4:3 Yes, I beg you also, true partner, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
- Jude 1:9 But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”
- Revelation 17:14 These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”
- Revelation 19:11-16 I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of God.” The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen. Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
- Ezekiel 34:24 I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
- Ezekiel 37:21-28 Say to them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, where they have gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations. They won’t be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. They won’t defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So they will be my people, and I will be their God. “ ‘ “My servant David will be king over them. They all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them. They will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived. They will dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s children, forever. David my servant will be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will place them, multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forever more. My tent also will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. The nations will know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forever more.” ’ ”
- Ezekiel 39:25-29 “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Now I will reverse the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel. I will be jealous for my holy name. They will bear their shame, and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against me, when they dwell securely in their land, and no one will make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations. They will know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land. Then I will leave none of them captive any more. I won’t hide my face from them any more; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”
- Zechariah 12:3-10 It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it. In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with terror, and his rider with madness; and I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. The chieftains of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Yahweh of Armies their God.’ In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem. Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah. In that day Yahweh will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like Yahweh’s angel before them. It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.
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Explain this verse (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The angel no longer relates future occurrences specially, but…
The angel no longer relates future occurrences specially, but proclaims God to be in general the guardian of his Church, so as to preserve it wonderfully amidst many difficulties and dreadful commotion’s, as well as in the profound darkness of disaster and death. This is the meaning of this sentence. This verse consists of two parts: the first relates to that most wretched period which should be full of various and almost numberless calamities; and the second assures us of God’s never-failing protection and preservation of his Church by his own innate power. In this second part the promise is restricted to the elect, and thus a third clause may be distinguished, but it is only an addition to the second just mentioned. At the close of the verse, the angel presents us with a definition of the Church, as many professed to be God’s people who were not really so. He says, Michael, the prince of the people, should stand up Then he states the reason, The calamities of that period should be such as were never witnessed from the beginning of the world As he addresses Daniel, he says, sons of thy people; for he was one of the sons of Abraham, and the nation from which Daniel sprang was in that sense “his.” From this it follows that the calamities of which he will by and bye treat, belong to the true Church, and not to the profane nations. The singular aid of Michael would not have been needed, unless the Church had been oppressed with the most disastrous distresses. We perceive, then, the angel’s meaning to be according to my explanation. The Church should be subject to most numerous and grievous calamities until the advent of Christ, but yet it should feel God’s propitious disposition, ensuring its own safety under his aid and protection. By Michael many agree in understanding Christ as the head of the Church. But if it seems better to understand Michael as the archangel, this sense will prove suitable, for under Christ as the head, angels are the guardians of the Church. Whichever be the true meaning, God was the preserver of his Church by the hand of his only-begotten Son, and because the angels are under the government of Christ, he might entrust this duty to Michael. That foul hypocrite, Servetus, has dared to appropriate this passage to himself; for he has inscribed it as a frontispiece on his horrible comments, because he was called Michael! We observe what diabolic fury has seized him, as he dared to claim as his own what is here said of the singular aid afforded by Christ; to his Church. He was a man of the most impure feelings, as we have already sufficiently made known. But this was a proof of his impudence and sacrilegious madness — to adorn himself with this epithet of Christ without, blushing, and to elevate himself into Christ’s place, by boasting himself to be Michael, the guardian of the Church, and the mighty prince of the people! This fact is well known, for I have the book at hand should any one distrust my word.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Angel here noteth two things: first that the…
The Angel here noteth two things: first that the Church shall be in great affliction and trouble at Christ’s coming, and next that God will send his Angel to deliver it, whom here he calleth Michael, meaning Christ, which is published by the preaching of the Gospel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Dan 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand…
Dan 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
Ver. 1. And at that time,] i.e., In the last days, and toward the end of the world; for in this chapter seemeth to he set forth the state of the Church in the last times, that it shall be most afflicted; yet she shall be fully delivered by Christ’s second coming to judgment. Cyprian was in like sort wont to comfort his friends thus: Venit Antichristus, sed superveniet Christus; Antichrist cometh; but then Christ will come after him, and overcome him.
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Shall Michael stand up,] i.e., The Lord Christ (that Prince of angels, and protector of his people), not a created angel, much less Michael Servetus, that blasphemous heretic, burned at Geneva, who was not afraid to say, as Calvin reporteth it, se esse Michaelem illum, Ecclesae custodem, that he was that Michael, the Church’s guardian. David George, also another black-mouthed heretic, said that he was the one David foretold by the prophets, {Jer 30:9 Eze 34:23 Hos 3:5} and that he was confident that the whole world would in time submit to him.
Which standeth for the children of thy people.] For all the Israel of God, to whom Christ is a fast friend, and will be while "the government is upon his shoulder." {Isa 9:6}
And there shall be a time of trouble.] To the Jews by the Romans (after Christ’s ascension, Mat 24:21), to the Christians by the Romists.
And at that time thy people shall be delivered.] The elect, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be secured and saved.
Every one that shall be found written in the book.] Called the "writing or catalogue of the house of Israel," {Eze 13:9} and the "Lamb’s book of life," {Rev 21:27} which is nothing else but conscriptio electorum in mente divina, saith Lyra, the writing of the elect in the divine mind or knowledge; such are said to be written among the living in Jerusalem. {Isa 4:3}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Many interpret this of the heat of Antiochus’s persecution,…
Many interpret this of the heat of Antiochus’s persecution, but their arguments are not cogent; but the meaning is this, as after the death of Antiochus the Jews had some deliverance and respite, so there will be yet a more famous deliverance to the people of God when Michael your prince, i.e. Messiah the Prince, shall signally appear for your salvation. He is called
the great Prince; but these words in their contexture refer not to the times of Antiochus, but to antichrist, and to that part of them which are the last part. Yet I think the truest meaning is to interpret these words, at that time, of all the time of Christ, from his first coming to the last. These all are the last times wherein God spake to us by his Son, Heb 1:1-3, to which Michael answers well, i.e. who is like God, which notes his equality with God, Phi 2:6. It was necessary Christ should now appear as a
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Prince to comfort his people against the oppression of Herod and the Romans, by bringing in a glorious salvation, which should wholly free the elect Israel of God from the Roman yoke, both under the persecuting emperors and under antichrist.
Every one that shall be found written in the book: thus this election is called by a metaphor usual in Scripture, and drawn from the usage of men in many cases, namely, writing some select men’s names in a book; showing that this salvation shall not be national neither to Jews nor any Gentile nation, but only a gathering together of the elect of God which are scattered abroad, called therefore a remnant, Ro 9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain It is usual with the prophets, when they foretel…
It is usual with the prophets, when they foretel the grievances of the church, to furnish it at the same time with proper antidotes, a remedy for every malady. And no relief is so sovereign, of such general application, so easily accommodated to every case, and of such powerful efficacy, as those that are fetched from Christ and the future state; thence the comforts here are fetched.
I. Jesus Christ shall appear his church's patron and protector: At that time, when the persecution is at the hottest, Michael shall stand up, Dan 12:1. The angel had told Daniel what a firm friend Michael was to the church, Dan 10:21. He all along showed this friendship in the upper world; the angels knew it; but now Michael shall stand up in his providence, and work deliverance for the Jews, when he sees that their power is gone, Deu 32:36. Christ is that great prince, for he is the prince of the kings of the earth, Rev 1:5. And, if he stand up for his church, who can be against it? But this is not all: At that time (that is, soon after) Michael shall stand up for the working out of our eternal salvation; the Son of God shall be incarnate, shall be manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Christ stood for the children of our people when he was made sin and a curse for them, stood in their stead as a sacrifice, bore the cure for them, to bear it from them. He stands for them in the intercession he ever lives to make within the veil, stands up for them, and stands their friend. And after the destruction of antichrist, of whom Antiochus was a type, Christ shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, shall appear for the complete redemption of all his.
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II. When Christ appears he will recompense tribulation to those that trouble his people. There shall be a time of trouble, threatening to all, but ruining to all the implacable enemies of God's kingdom among men, such trouble as never was since there was a nation. This is applicable. 1. To the destruction of Jerusalem, which Christ calls (perhaps with an eye to this prediction) such a great tribulation as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, Mat 24:21. This the angel had spoken much of (Dan 9:26, Dan 9:27); and it happened about the same time that Christ set up the gospel-kingdom in the world, that Michael our prince stands up. Or, 2. To the judgment of the great day, that day that shall burn as an oven, and consume the proud and all that do wickedly; that will be such a day of trouble as never was to all those whom Michael our prince stands against.
III. He will work salvation for his people: "At that time thy people shall be delivered, delivered from the mischief and ruin designed them by Antiochus, even all those that were marked for preservation, that were written among the living," Isa 4:3. When Christ comes into the world he will save his spiritual Israel from sin and hell, and will, at his second coming, complete their salvation, even the salvation of as many as were given him, as many as have their names in the book of life, Rev 20:15. They were written there before the world, and will be found written there at the end of the world, when the books shall be opened.
IV. There shall be a distinguishing resurrection of those that sleep in the dust, Dan 12:2. 1. When God works deliverance for his people from persecution it is a kind of resurrection; so the Jews' release out of Babylon was represented in vision (Eze. 37) and so the deliverance of the Jews from Antiochus, and other restorations of the church to outward prosperity; they were as life from the dead. Many of those who had long slept in the dust of obscurity and calamity shall then awake, some to that life, and honour, and comfort which will be lasting, everlasting; but to others, who, when they return to their prosperity, will return to their iniquity, it will be a resurrection to shame and contempt, for the prosperity of fools will but expose them and destroy them. 2. When, upon the appearing of Michael our prince, his gospel is preached, many of those who sleep in the dust, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be awakened by it to take upon them a profession of religion, and shall rise out of their heathenism or Judaism; but, since there will be always a mixture of hypocrites with true saints, it is but some of those who are raised to life to whom the gospel is a savour of life unto life, but others will be raised by it to shame and contempt, to whom the gospel of Christ will be a savour of death unto death, and Christ himself set for their fall. The net of the gospel encloses both good and bad. But, 3. It must be meant of the general resurrection at the last day: The multitude of those that sleep in the dust shall awake, that is, all, which shall be a great many. Or, Of those that sleep in the dust many shall arise to life and many to shame. The Jews themselves understand this of the resurrection of the dead at the end of time; and Christ seems to have an eye to it when he speaks of the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation (Joh 5:29); and upon this the Jews are said by St. Paul to expect a resurrection of the dead both of the just and of the unjust, Act 24:15. And nothing could come in more seasonably here, for, under Antiochus's persecution, some basely betrayed their religion, others bravely adhered to it. Now it would be a trouble to them that, when the storm was over, they could neither reward the one nor punish the other; this therefore would be a satisfaction to them, that they would both be recompensed according to their works in the resurrection. And the apostle, speaking of the pious Jews that suffered martyrdom under Antiochus, tells us that though they were tortured yet they accepted not deliverance, because they hoped to obtain this better resurrection, Heb 11:35.
V. There shall be a glorious reward conferred on those who, in the day of trouble and distress, being themselves wise, did instruct many. Such were taken particular notice of in the prophecy of the persecution (Dan 11:33), that they should do eminent service, and yet should fall by the sword and by flame; now, if there were not another life after this, they would be of all men most miserable, and therefore we are here assured that they shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just (Dan 12:3): Those that are wise (that are teachers, so some read it, for teachers have need of wisdom, and those that have wisdom themselves should communicate it to others) shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, shall shine in glory, heavenly glory, the glory of the upper world; and those that by the wisdom they have, and the instructions they give, are instrumental to turn any, especially to turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. Note, 1. There is a glory reserved for all the saints in the future state, for all that are wise, wise for their souls and eternity. A man's wisdom now makes his face to shine (Ecc 8:1), but much more will it do so in that state where its power shall be perfected and its services rewarded. 2. The more good any do in this world, especially to the souls of men, the greater will be their glory and reward in the other world. Those that turn men to righteousness, that turn sinners from the errors of their ways and help to save their souls from death (Jam 5:20), will share in the glory of those they have helped to heaven, which will be a great addition to their own glory. 3. Ministers of Christ, who have obtained mercy of him to be faithful and successful, and so are made burning and shining lights in this world, shall shine very brightly in the other world, shall shine as the stars. Christ is the sun, the fountain, of the lights both of grace and glory; ministers, as stars, shine in both, with a light derived from him, and a diminutive light in comparison of him; yet to those that are earthen vessels it will be a glory infinitely transcending their deserts. They shall shine as the stars of different magnitudes, some in less, others in greater lustre; but, whereas the day is coming when the stars shall fall from heaven as leaves in autumn, these stars shall shine for ever and ever, shall never set, never be eclipsed.
VI. That this prophecy of those times, though sealed up now, would be of great use to those that should live then, Dan 12:4. Daniel must now shut up the words and seal the book because the time would be long ere these things would be accomplished: and it was some comfort that the Jewish nation, though, in the infancy of their return from Babylon, while they were few and weak, they met with obstructions in their work, were not persecuted for their religion till a long time after, when they had grown to some strength and maturity. He must seal the book because it would not be understood, and therefore would not be regarded, till the things contained in it were accomplished; but he must keep it safely, as a treasure of great value, laid up for the ages to come, to whom it would be of great service; for many shall then run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Then this hidden treasure shall be opened, and many shall search into it, and dig for the knowledge of it, as for silver. They shall run to and fro, to enquire out copies of it, shall collate them, and see that they be true and authentic. They shall read it over and over, shall meditate upon it, and run it over in their minds; discurrent - they shall discourse of it, and talk it over among themselves, and compare notes about it, if by any means they may sift out the meaning of it; and thus knowledge shall be increased. By consulting this prophecy on this occasion they shall be led to search other scriptures, which shall contribute much to their advancement in useful knowledge; for then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord, Hos 6:3. Those that would have their knowledge increased must take pains, must not sit still in slothfulness and bare wishes but run to and fro, must make use of all the means of knowledge and improve all opportunities of getting their mistakes rectified, their doubts resolved, and their acquaintance with the things of God improved, to know more and to know better what they do know. And let us here see reason to hope that, 1. Those things of God which are now dark and obscure will hereafter be made clear, and easy to be understood. Truth is the daughter of time. Scripture prophecies will be expounded by the accomplishment of them; therefore they are given, and for that explication they are reserved. Therefore they are told us before, that, when they do come to pass, we may believe. 2. Those things of God which are despised and neglected, and thrown by as useless, shall be brought into reputation, shall be found to be of great service, and be brought into request; for divine revelation, however slighted for a time, shall be magnified and made honourable, and, above all, in the judgment of the great day, when the books shall be opened, and that book among the rest.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And at that time shall Michael stand up,.... The…
And at that time shall Michael stand up,.... The Archangel, who has all the angels of heaven under him, and at his command, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ; who is as God, as the name signifies, truly and really God, and equal in nature, power, and glory, to his divine Father: "he shall stand up"; which is not to be understood of his incarnation, or manifestation in the flesh, for this refers to times long after that; yet neither of his personal appearance in the clouds of heaven, and standing upon the earth in the latter day; but of his spiritual presence among his people, and protection of them, and continuance with them: this respects the spiritual reigns of Christ, the Lamb's standing upon Mount Zion, and the 144,000 with him, Rev 14:1, and this will be at that time, when the eastern antichrist, the Turk, will be destroyed; for the words are closely connected with the last verse of the preceding chapter; and when also the western antichrist, the pope of Rome, will come to his end; for, as they rose, so they will fall, much about the same time; and then Christ will rise and stand up, as the glorious Head of the church, and as a triumphant Conqueror over all his enemies, and take to himself his great power, and reign, and that kingdom which of right belongs to him.
The great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people; the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Prince of the kings of the earth; great in his person, and in his office; great in dignity, power, and authority; who always did, and ever will, stand on the side of the true Israel of God: he espoused their cause very early; he wrought out salvation for them in time; he intercedes for them now in heaven, and will appear to be their patron and defender against all their enemies in the latter day: here it seems to have special regard to the people of the Jews, Daniel's people; whom Christ shall appear unto, and for, in an eminent manner, to convert and save them, help and assist them, protect and defend them.
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And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; that is, ever since the world was, from the beginning of it, from the creation of the world; not only from the time that the Jews became a people, which was at their coming out of Egypt, as some understand it, but from the beginning of time; and so our Lord interprets it, who seems to have this passage in view in Mat 24:21, there have been many great and sore troubles in the world, great confusions in it, and convulsions of it, strange and amazing changes in it; very afflictive and distressing times have been to each of the kingdoms, nations, and cities, which have been entirely overthrown; but never was any like to this; which respects not the distresses of the Jews in the times of Antiochus, or at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; nor does it seem to respect them at all, at least they will have no further share and concern in it, than as they will be in connection with other people, among whom they will be at this time; and it will be to them rather a time of deliverance and salvation than of distress; but it is that time of trial, and hour of temptation, that shall come upon all the world, Rev 3:10 as it may concern the church and people of God, it is the last struggle of the beast, of antichrist, at the time of his downfall and ruin, when he will make his last effort; this will be the last persecution of the saints, which will be short and sharp; the slaying of the witnesses, which will affect the whole interest of Christ everywhere; and as this concerns others, it designs the pouring out of the vials of God's wrath upon all the antichristian states, and all those judgments and calamities which will come upon the nations of the world, signified by the harvest and vintage; see Rev 14:14, &c.: and this time of trouble, for the nature, quality, and extent of it, will exceed any and all that ever were in the world.
And at that time thy people shall be delivered; the Jews, the people of Daniel; these shall be delivered not only from the then present outward troubles, not only from their present captivity and afflictions, but from their spiritual evils; from the bondage of sin, and the captivity of Satan; their disbelief of the Messiah; their confidence in their own righteousness, and attachment to the traditions of their fathers; they shall be turned from their transgressions, and return to the Lord their God, and David their King, and shall be truly converted, and spiritually and eternally saved, Rom 11:25.
Every one that shall be found written in the book; in the book of life, as Jacchiades; in the book of God's eternal purposes and decrees, concerning the salvation of his people by Christ; for it is according to these that God saves and calls men, whether Jews or Gentiles, Ti2 1:9.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A promise of deliverance, and of a joyful resurrection,…
A promise of deliverance, and of a joyful resurrection, ver. 1- 4. A conference concerning the time of these events, ver. 5-7. An answer to Daniel's enquiry, ver. 8-13.
For the children - The meaning seems to be, as after the death of Antiochus the Jews had some deliverance, so there will be yet a greater deliverance to the people of God, when Michael your prince, the Messiah shall appear for your salvation. A time of trouble - A the siege of Jerusalem, before the final judgment. The phrase at that time, probably includes all the time of Christ, from his first, to his last coming.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The proper conclusion to the great revolutions predicted in
CHAPTER XII
The proper conclusion to the great revolutions predicted in
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this and the following chapters is the general resurrection,
of which the beginning of this chapter (if to be literally
understood) gives some intimation, 1-3.
Daniel is then commanded to shut up the words and to seal the
book to the time of the end, 4;
and is informed of the three grand symbolical periods of a
time, times, and a half, twelve hundred and ninety days and
thirteen hundred and thirty-five days, 4-12;
at the end of the last of which Daniel shall rest and stand
in his lot, 13.
It is generally thought by commentators that the termination
of the last period is the epoch of the FIRST resurrection.
See Dan 20:4; Dan 20:5.
NOTES ON CHAP. XII
Verse 1. And at that time Michael shall stand up] Michael the archangel, as has already been observed, was ever reputed the guardian of the Jewish people.
Every one that shall be found written in the book] All that truly fear, love, and obey the Lord, On the phrase, "written in the book, the book of life," &c., see the passages in the margin, and the notes on those passages.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Dan 12:1. And at that time, &c. — It…
Dan 12:1. And at that time, &c. — It is usual with the prophets, when they foretel the troubles of the church, to furnish it, at the same time, with proper supports and consolations; and none are so sovereign, of such general application, so easily accommodated to every case, and of such powerful efficacy, as those that are fetched from Christ, and a future state revealed in his gospel. At that time — When the troubles are the greatest; shall Michael stand up — The word Michael signifies, Who is like God? which name, with the title here given him, The great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, manifestly points out the Messiah, and cannot properly be understood of a created angel. The angel had told Dan 10:21, what a friend Michael was to the church of God, and he now informs him that he should interpose in a singular way, and work out deliverance for her. If this have any reference at all to the respite from trouble, and the deliverance wrought out for the Jews, after the death of Antiochus; yet that cannot be the primary intention of the prediction. It evidently relates to the incarnation of the Son of God, which was to take place soon after the days of Antiochus; in order to the eternal salvation of God’s people. As if the angel had said, As after the signal judgment of God upon Antiochus, that persecutor of his people, they shall have some deliverance from their calamities; so there will be a yet far greater salvation wrought out for them, when Michael your prince shall appear for you. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, &c. — This is not only applicable to, but evidently primarily intended of the calamities suffered by the Jews, before and during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans; calamities brought upon them for their rejection and crucifixion of their own Messiah. Of this time of trouble Christ speaks in similar language, Mat 24:21, when he says, Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to that time, no, nor ever shall be. Of which, see the notes on Deu 28:50-63. Of this the angel had spoken much, Dan 9:26-27; and it happened soon after the time in which Christ set up his gospel kingdom in the world. It may refer, however, also to the dreadful judgments which shall be executed on all antichristian powers, to make way for the universal spread of the gospel, and the final conversion and restoration of the Jews. Concerning which awful judgments, see Rev 16:18-21; Rev 19:17-21. The prediction may include likewise the judgments of the great and last day, the day that shall burn as an oven, when all the proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and shall be consumed; that will be such a day of trouble as never was, to all those against whom Michael our prince shall stand. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one found written in the book — By those found written in the book, or, as it is expressed, Isa 4:3, written among the living in Jerusalem, may be understood, 1st, The pious Jews who should be preserved from the mischief and ruin designed them by Antiochus; but more especially, 2d, Such as should believe in Christ when he appeared, embrace his gospel, and become his true disciples, who should escape both the temporal calamities coming on their countrymen, and obtain spiritual and eternal salvation through him. It includes, 3d, Those who should be converted in the latter days, and restored to their own land; and lastly, All that should be found written in the book of life at the day of final judgment, that is, all truly justified, regenerated, and pious persons. Of the book of life, see notes on Exo 32:32; Psa 69:28; Isa 4:3.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And at that time - At the period referred…
And at that time - At the period referred to in the preceding chapter. The fair construction of the passage demands this interpretation, and if that refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, then what is here said must also; and we are to look for the direct and immediate fulfillment of this prediction in something that occurred under him, however, it may be supposed to have an ultimate reference to other and more remote events. The phrase “at that time,” however, does not limit what is here said to any one part of his life, or to his death, but to the general period referred to in the time of his reign. That reign was but eleven years, and the fulfillment must be found somewhere during that period.
Shall Michael - On the meaning of this word, and the being here referred to, see the notes at Dan 10:13.
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Stand up - That is, he shall interpose; he shall come forth to render aid. This does not mean necessarily that he would visibly appear, but that he would in fact interpose. In the time of great distress and trouble, there would be supernatural or angelic aid rendered to the people of God. No man can prove that this would not be so, nor is there any inherent improbability in the supposition that good angels may be employed to render assistance in the time of trouble. Compare the notes at Dan 10:13.
The great prince which standeth for the children of thy people - See the notes as above at Dan 10:13. The meaning is, that he had the affairs of the Hebrew people, or the people of God, especially under his protection, or he was appointed to watch over them. This doctrine is in accordance with the notions that prevailed at that time; and no one can demonstrate that it is not true. There is no authority for applying this to the Messiah, as many have done, for the term Michael is not elsewhere given to him, and all that the language fairly conveys is met by the other supposition. The simple meaning is, that he who was the guardian angel of that nation, or who was appointed to watch over its interests, would at that time of great trouble interpose and render aid.
And there shall be a time of trouble - Under Antiochus Epiphanes. See the notes at Dan. 11:21-45. Compare the books of the Maccabees, passim.
Such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time - This might be construed with reference to the Jewish nation, as meaning that the trouble would be greater than any that had occurred during its history. But it may also be taken, as our translators understand it, in a more general sense, as referring to any or all nations. In either sense it can hardly be considered as the language of hyperbole. The troubles that came upon the land under the persecutions of Antiochus probably surpassed any that the Hebrew nation ever experienced, nor could it be shown that, for the same period of time, they were surpassed among any other people. The Saviour has employed this language as adapted to express the intensity of the trials which would be brought upon the Jews by the Romans Mat 24:21, but he does not say that as used in Daniel it had reference originally to that event. It was language appropriate to express the thought which he wished to convey, and he, therefore, so employed it.
And at that time - When these troubles are at their height.
Thy people shall be delivered - To wit, by the valor and virtues of the Maccabees. See the accounts in the books of the Maccabees. Compare Prideaux, Con. iii. 257, following.
Every one that shall be found written in the book - Whose names are enrolled; that is, enrolled as among the living. The idea is, that a register was made of the names of those who were to be spared, to wit, by God, or by the angel, and that all whose names were so recorded would be preserved. Those not so enrolled would be cut off under the persecutions of Antiochus. The language here does not refer to the book of eternal life or salvation, nor is it implied that they who would thus be preserved would necessarily be saved, but to their preservation from death and persecution, as if their names were recorded in a book, or were enrolled. We frequently meet with similar ideas in the Scriptures. The idea is, of course, poetical, but it expresses with sufficient clearness the thought that there was a Divine purpose in regard to them, and that there was a definite number whom God designed to keep alive, and that these would be delivered from those troubles, while many others would be cut off. Compare the notes at Dan 10:21.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Michael, "who is like God," alludes to the name…
Michael, "who is like God," alludes to the name of the Machabees; Who is like unto thee among the gods? The archangel protected the Jews, while Epiphanes was engaged beyond the Euphrates. --- Time. The nation was in the utmost distress. Only about seven thousand ill-armed men adhered to Judas: yet these delivered the country by God’s decree. --- Book. God seemed to keep a register of his friends. (Calmet) --- Michael, the guardian of the Church, will protect her against antichrist, as her pastors will do visibly. (Worthington)
Guest. It seems most probable that the king here spoken of was Evilmerodac, the son and successor of Nabuchodonosor, and a great favourer of the Jews; (Challoner; Worthington) or it might be Darius, (Houbigant.) or Cyrus, under whose reign St. Irenæus (iv. 11.) and others place this history. (Calmet) --- The more correct Greek editions begin with the preceding verse. (Menochius) --- Septuagint read, "Prophecy of Abaum, son of Juda, of the tribe of Levi. There was a priest, Daniel, son of Abda, who was a guest of the king of Babylon," &c. See Pref. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain c. Conclusion of the vision. The Messianic deliverance and…
c. Conclusion of the vision. The Messianic deliverance and glorifying of God’s people, together with a reference to the definite determination by God of the time at which the Messiah’s coming to deliver should transpire.
Chap. 12
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1And at [in] that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which [who] standeth for [over against] the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as [which] never was1 since there was a nation even to [till] that same time: and at [in] that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 2And many of them that sleep in the dust [ground] of the earth [dust] shall awake, some [these] to everlasting life, 3and some [these] to shame [reproaches] and [to] everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn [the] many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.
4But [And] thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to [till] the time of the end: many shall run to and fro [run through the book], and [the] knowledge [of it] shall be increased.
5Then [And] I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank [hither at the lip] of the river,2:and the other [one] on that 6side of the bank [hither at the lip] of the river.2 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which [who] was upon the waters3 of the river,2 How long 7[Till when] shall it be to the end of these [the] wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which [who] was upon the waters 3of the river, when [and] he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven [toward the heavens], and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter [as (at) the finishing of scattering] the power [hand] of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8And I4 heard, but I understood not [could not understand]: then [and] said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end [sequel] of these things ? 9And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10Many shall be purified [purify themselves], and made white [whiten themselves], and tried [be smelted]; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but [and] the wise [prudent] shall understand. 11And from the time that the daily [continual] sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up [to the giving of the desolate 12abomination], there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
13But [And] go thou4 thy way till [to] the end be: for [and] thou shalt rest, and stand in [to (at)] thy lot at the end of the days.
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
Dan_12:1-3. The Messianic deliverance and the judgment for eternal retribution. And at that time; i.e., at the time just indicated (Dan_11:45), when judgment shall overtake the impious oppressor, Antiochus Epiphanes, and when he shall come to his end “without a helper.”5 In opposition to Hävernick’s attempt to interpret וּבָעֵת חַהִיא in the indefinite sense of “once, at a certain time,” nearly all recent expositors have justly contended: (1) that the copula ו connects this new designation of time most intimately with the preceding; (2) that it is impossible to regard the words בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, which Hävernick adduces in comparison, otherwise than as a reference to the time indicated in the context immediately preceding; (3) that the time referred to is immediately afterward characterized as a time of trouble, which shows with sufficient clearness, that, like the mention of the משכילים in Dan_12:3 (cf. Dan_11:35), the allusion is to the period of persecution under Antiochus as heretofore described.6—Shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which standeth for the children of thy people. This introduction of Michael as the heavenly ally and protector of Israel (not as the Son of God or the Messiah himself,—as Havernick, in accord with the older exegesis, still supposes), refers back to Dan_11:1, and also to the preliminaries to the vision as a whole in chap. 10, and especially to Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21, in the same way as וּבָעֵת הַהִיא refers to the close of the preceding chapter. In both places עמד is employed sensu bellico, and denotes an armed and martial appearance (cf. Dan_11:14; Dan_11:16, etc.). עַל is, following הָעֹמֵד, serves to express the idea of protecting oversight over, etc., as in Est_8:11; Est_9:16. He “stands up” or “stands there” for the children of thy people, i.e., he represents their interests in the way of actively supporting them and of protecting them; cf. Dan_10:13.—And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; i.e., he trouble of the faithful shall then reach its highest intensity, shall have reached its climax when deliverance finally arrives; cf. Dan_11:45; Dan_9:26-27. On the relative clause וגו׳ אֲשֵׁר לֹא נִחְיְתָח, which describes this as a time of unheard of, unprecedented trouble, cf. Exo_9:18; Exo_9:24; Joe_2:2, and particularly Jer_30:7, which latter passage seems to have served generally as a prototype of the text.—And at that time thy people shall be delivered. Kranichfeld remarks properly, that “the deliverance of Israel (יִמָּלֵט) which is here conceived of as accomplished under the direction of מִיכָאֵל, is coincident in fact with the descriptions of Dan_7:18; Dan_7:26 et seq., 14; Dan_9:24; and the entrance to the Ancient of days (Dan_7:13) of him who was like the son of man, and who was the spiritually endowed leader of Israel, i.e., the Mashiach, sprung from Israel itself, receives notice as being the final result and attestation of the victorious conflict maintained, under the invisible direction of the angel מִיכָאֵל, against the adversary of the theocracy, who appears in the history of the nations. The absolute identity of the Mashiach with מִיכָאֵל, whose spiritual endowments and official relations were similar to his, does not, however, become manifest from this observation—as Hävernick and others assert—despite the appropriate and well-founded application of the description to the glorified Son of man in person, in the New Test. Apocalypse,—any more than the direct identity of Satan, the adversary of God in the angelic world, with the New Test. antichrist, who stands under his ægis, can be demonstrated.”—Every one that shall be found written in the book; or, “whosoever shall find himself recorded, in the book.” The A. V. is literal. On כל in the sense of “whosoever, quicunque,” cf. Isa_43:7; 2Sa_2:23. The book is the same as that mentioned in the similar passage, Isa_4:3, and hence, the book of life; cf. on Dan_7:10. It is, of course, not to be regarded as a “list of living Israelites” (cf. Psa_69:29; Exo_32:32); nor, probably, as a “record of those who shall be delivered in the decisive hour and be permitted to live.” It is rather a record of those who shall inherit eternal life, a “list of the subjects of Messiah’s kingdom” (cf. Hitzig on the passage), of those who shall stand approved in the judgment, whether they live until it transpires, or are raised from the dead to meet it, according to Dan_12:2. Hofmann (Schriftbew., I. 209) is in substantial accord with this view—the “Divine register of Israel, upon which are entered all who truly belong to Israel,”—while Füller arbitrarily applies the expression in this place to the “book of truth,” Dan_10:21.
Dan_12:2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth; rather, “and many of them that sleep under the earth;” literally, “many of the sleepers of the dust land.” אַדְמַת־עָפָר, “land, earth of dust” (i.e., the dust of the grave, cf. Psa_22:16; Psa_22:30; Isa_26:19, etc), is substantially equivalent to “earth dust, soil;” the יְשֵׁנֵי א׳־ע׳ are those who sleep the sleep of death in that dust of the earth; cf. Psa_13:4; Job_3:13; Jer_51:39; Jer_51:57; and also the New Test. κοιμώμενοι, κεκοιμημένοι.—Shall awake, some to everlasting life, etc. While all the ancient Christian expositors regard this as referring to the general resurrection of the dead, and, among moderns, Hävernick, Hofmann, Auberlen, Zündel, Kliefoth, etc., still agree with that view, which makes “many” to be equivalent to “all” (or translates, with Hofmann, Schriftbew., II. 2, 549, “and in multitudes shall they arise from the world of the dead”), a majority of writers since Bertholdt (also Kranichfeld, Füller, Köstlin, in Stud. und Krit., 1869, No. 2, p. 252) hold that the many who awake from their sleep belong solely to the nation of Israel; as Fuller expresses it, p. Dan 339: the resurrection of the dead foretold in this place is “not the last and general resurrection, but a partial one which precedes that, and is confined to Daniel’s nation.” It is manifest, however, that the final and general resurrection is here intended, (1) because the expression, the “sleepers of the dust of the earth” is far too general in its character, to admit of its being limited to the deceased Israelites; (2) because the mention of the eternal punishment of the wicked in the closing words of the verse would be incomprehensible, and serve no purpose, if they refer only to Israelites who are to be punished eternally (see the context immediately below); (3) further, רַבִּים, which primarily implies the immeasurable extent of the multitude of the resurrected dead (cf. Hofmann’s rendering: “in multitudes”), may as well designate the entire world of dead arising from their graves as a large fraction of it—in the same way as πολλοί or οἱ πολλοί is frequently employed in the New Test, as synonymous with πάντες; cf., e.g., Mat_20:28; Mat_26:28, with 1Jn_2:2; 1Co_16:22; Rom_5:15-16, with Dan_12:12; Daniel 7 (4) if the earlier prophetic parallels, Isa_26:19; Isa_66:24; Eze_37:1-15, actually do foretell a partial resurrection which is confined to Israel (which can by no means be positively established, since they rest, without exception, on the pre supposition of an ultimate resurrection of all men, cf. Hofmann, Schriftbew., II. 2, 461 et seq.), this will not involve that the passage before us has a similar bearing; (5) on the contrary, the expectation of a general resurrection of the dead, whose existence is abundantly evidenced in the Jewish apocalyptic literature (2Ma_7:14) and in the New Test, (see especially Joh_5:28 et seq.; Act_24:15), would require that there should not be wanting basal testimonies to that fact in the canonical Old Test. as well, which would obviously be the case if this passage referred exclusively to a particular resurrection of the Israelites; (6) nor does the intimate connection of the passage with the preceding context, or, in other words, the concatenation of the eschatological prophecies in Dan_12:1-3 with the æra of the Antiochian MaceabfeanMaceabfean troubles, as described in the preceding chapter, militate against the universal character of the resurrection in question. It is evident that in the mind of the prophet that period of trial was the immediate precursor of the end of the world.8 (4) if the earlier prophetic parallels, Isa_26:19; Isa_66:24; Eze_37:1-15, actually do foretell a partial resurrection which is confined to Israel (which can by no means be positively established, since they rest, without exception, on the presupposition of an ultimate resurrection of all men, cf. Hofmann, Schriftbew., 2:2, 461 et seq.), this will not involve that the passage before us has a similar bearing; (5) on the contrary, the expectation of a general resurrection of the dead, whose existence is abundantly evidenced in the Jewish apocalyptic literature (2Ma_7:14) and in the Sew Test, (see especially Joh_5:28 et seq.; Act_24:15), would require that there should not be wanting basal testimonies to that fact in the canonical Old Test, as well, which would obviously be the case if this passage referred exclusively to a particular resurrection of the Israelites; (6) nor does the intimate connection of the passage with the preceding context, or, in other words, the concatenation of the eschatological prophecies in Dan_12:1-3 with the æra of the Antiochian-Maccabæn troubles, as described in the preceding chapter, militate against the universal character of the resurrection in question. It is evident that in the mind of the prophet that period of trial was the immediate precursor of the end of the world.*As he viewed it, the end of the persecution by Antiochus and the advent of the Messiah to introduce a new and eternal period of blessing were substantially coincident. He saw nothing at all of the long series of years that were to intervene between those Old-Test. “woes of the Messiah” and his actual birth and incarnation, nor did he observe the many centuries between His first and second advent, between the beginning of the end and the ultimate end of all things, because it was inconsistent with the nature of prophetic vision (cf, supra, Eth.-fund. principles, etc., on chap. 9. No. 1). The antitypical general judgment of all flesh was identical with the typical judgment that came upon the Old-Test, oppressor of God’s people, to his understanding; and it is therefore equally one-sided to deprive the judgment here referred to of its universal character, and to reduce it to a special judgment over the good and the wicked Israelites, as Bertholdt, Hitzig, and the remaining rationalistic expositors contend,—or to arbitrarily refer Dan_12:1 to the deliverance of Israel from the oppression of Antiochus, and therefore interpret it typically and distinctively, but Dan_12:2-3 to the general resurrection and judgment, making them antitypical and eschatological, so that an immense chasm between the time of Dan_12:1-2 is postulated, of whose existence there is no indication in the text. Against this arbitrary disruption of a description that obviously forms a unit, see Hilgenfeld, Die Propheten Ezra und Daniel, p. 84, and also Kranichfeld, p. 402. A hiatus of centuries certainly exists; but it belongs between Dan_11:45 and Dan_12:1, and is of such a character that the prophet could have been in no way conscious of its presence.9—And some to shame, and everlasting contempt. As the awaking “to everlasting life” recalls Isa_26:19, so the arising “to shame, to everlasting contempt” (דִּרְאוֹן, stat. constr. of דֵּרָאוֹן, similar to זִכְרוֹן, constr. of זִכָּרוֹן) suggests Isa_66:24. cf. the New Test, expressions ἀνάστασις κρίσεως, Joh_5:29, and θάνατος δεύτερος, Rev_20:14.—Füller supposes, very arbitrarily, that “the resurrection to shame” is “merely a passing observation,” which might be omitted from the passage without damaging its meaning. On the contrary, the mention of the eternal shame and torment which await the wicked at the judgment is a leading thought, which was not only suggested, but positively demanded, by the recent mention of the helpless and irretrievable ruin of the antichristian madman (Dan_11:45), and which deserves consideration as a leading proof that the judgment here foretold is not to be distinctively Jewish, but universal in its character, precisely because of this undeniable reference to Dan_11:45 b; see supra, No. 2.
Dan_12:3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. There is no more reason here than in Dan_11:33; Dan_11:35, to translate חַמָּשְׂכִּילִים otherwise than “the wise, prudent, or understanding” ones. It does not characterize the pious generally (who were designated as the “many,” רַבִּים, in Dan_11:33, and who are again mentioned by the same term in b of this verse), but “those who were prominent among the people by their piety, fidelity, and steadfastness, who accomplished more than others by word and deed, and suffered more than others for the holy covenant” (Füller). It is self evident that the activity of such theocratically wise or prudent persons would include the work of teaching, but this does not involve the necessity of rendering משכיִלים directly by “teachers.” This over-precise adaptation of the idea is not established by the parallel מַצְדִּיקֵי חָרַבִּים, nor by the designation of Jehovah’s servant by מַשְׁכִּיל, in Isa_52:13 (against Hitzig). On the other hand, the too general and diluted rendering, “pious, well-disposed ones” (de Wette), has no sufficient support, e.g., in Mat_13:44; for Christ’s statement respecting the “righteous” in general, that “they shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” is a free application, but not a translation or an explanation of this passage.—On the comparison of the shining of the “wise (חַזְחִיר, properly, “to radiate brightness, to shine brightly”) with that of the bright arch of heaven (רָקִיעַ, “the firmament,” cf. the expositors on Gen_1:6), see especially Exo_24:10; also Eze_1:22; Eze_1:26, etc.—And they that turn (the) many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. The words מַצְדִּיקֵי חָרַבִּים seem to have been borrowed from Isa_53:11, but do not on that account justify the assertion of Kranichfeld, that only originators of the righteousness mediated by the priestly function,—hence priests, “who take away the sins of the people through the sacrificial ceremonial”—are to be understood thereby;—a view concerning חִצְדִּיק that is entirely too contracted, and, at the same time, interpolating in character, which finds no support either in the former mention of theocratic sacrifices (Dan_7:25; Dan_8:11; Dan_8:13; Dan_9:26), or in the passage, Dan_9:24.—The stars are mentioned as symbols of the heavenly condition of the righteous who have been glorified after the image of God in 1Co_15:40 et seq.; Rev_2:28; cf. also supra, on Dan_8:10.
Dan_12:4. Concluding exhortation of the prophesying angel. But thou, O Daniel shut up (or “conceal”) the words, and seal the book. The “words” and the “book” can hardly designate the entire book of Daniel’s prophecies, but refer merely to the final vision, Dan_11:2 to Dan_12:3 (Hävern., Von Leng., Kranichf., Füller, etc., are correct). On סֵפֵר as denoting a limited section of connected writing, which occupies a single roll, cf. Neh_1:1; Jer_51:63; also supra, on Dan_9:2.10On סתם, “to conceal,”—i.e., to preserve in secret, or not publish it—and חִתם, “to seal,” which is added to strengthen the idea, see on Dan_8:6. Neither of the words was to be taken literally, of course (against Hitzig). What the angel required of the prophet, and to which the latter doubtless consented, was merely that he should avoid any intentional or inconsiderate publishing of the prophecy, hence, that he should transmit it into chaste, approved, and trustworthy hands, that would be prepared to treat it in accordance with its mysterious and awe-compelling subject.—To the time of the end: i.e., until the juncture indicated in Dan_12:1, to which the entire prophecy, beginning with Dan_11:2, is directed.—Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased; rather, “many shall search it through, and the understanding shall become great.” יְשֹׁטְטוּ, properly, “they shall run about,” namely, for the purpose of searching or investigating; cf. Jer_5:1; Amo_8:12; Zec_4:10; 2Ch_16:9. The interpretation by “wandering about, roving about without a guide” (as contrasted with the assured guidance afforded by God’s word), which was advocated by J. D. Michaelis and Von Lengerke, cannot be established; nor can the sense of “careful reading,” which was adopted by Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, etc., be demonstrated, despite the citation of the rabbinical שִׁטִּים ,שִׁטָּה, “a line (of reading), a straight line,” which is alleged as underlying the words in the text.—The whole observation was evidently intended to assign a reason for the exhortation to conceal the imparted prophecy, and treat it sacredly, and to prevent its falling into profane hands; for that prophecy was not unimportant and ordinary in its character, but a means to secure to many, who should zealously examine it in the future, a deeper insight into the ways of God, the controller of all earthly fortunes. For that reason it would be sinful to profane it. [“If Daniel, therefore, must only place the prophecy securely, that it may continue to the time of the end, the sealing then does not exclude the use of it in transcriptions, and there exists no reason for thinking that the searching into it will take place only for the first time in the end” (Keil).]
Dan_12:5-7. Solemn averment, by oath, of the assured realizing of the prophecy until a determined point in the future—namely, until the expiration of the mystical three and a half years, to whose close the prophet had already been referred, Dan_7:25 (cf. Dan_8:14; Dan_9:27). The recurrence of this comforting designation of time indicates that the contents of these verses to the end of the chapter are designed to form an epilogue, not merely to the last prophetic vision (chap. 10–12:3), but to the entire prophetic part of the book, and even to the whole book itself. The new scene, however, which begins with this verse, and serves to introduce the epilogue, obviously occupies a more intimate relation to the scene, Dan_10:4 et seq., which introduces the last great vision, than to the others, and may even be regarded as a resumption of that scene, with but little modification. Compare, on the one hand, the words indicating a new beginning, “Then I, Daniel, looked,” etc., which recall Dan_10:5, and, on the other hand, the circumstance that the principal person in the former scene, the mighty angelic prince, “clothed in linen,” still continues to be the principal person in word and action (Dan_12:6 et seq.), although two other angels, who had not been present hitherto, now appeared (as witnesses of the oath to be taken by him; see immediately below), so that the number present was now double its former size, when only Daniel and the angelic prince in linen clothing were on the scene.—And behold, there stood other two; i.e., other than the one who had hitherto spoken and who again resumes in Dan_12:7,—other than the priestly angelic prince in linen garments. אֲחֵרִים is certainly not used with reference to the speaker introduced in Dan_12:6 (Hengstenb.), but refers, as it always does, to what has been previously mentioned, so that it distinguishes two other persons besides the angel who was thus far the speaker; and these enter into the prophet’s range of vision at this point. There can be no doubt that these persons were likewise angels; and the following verses leave no room to question that their number was precisely two, that they might be recognized as witnesses to the oath in Dan_12:7; cf. Deu_19:15; Deu_31:28; 2Co_13:1, etc. (thus correctly, Hitzig, Kranichfeld, and in substance Kliefoth also). It would be useless, however, to venture any supposition as to who the two angels were, for the simple reason that the writer did not see fit to furnish their names. It is scarcely probable that they were Gabriel and Michael, for Daniel would certainly have noticed their presence, since he had already mentioned these two chief princes among the angels in several instances. Probably angels of inferior rank are to be conceived of, since they were capable of being witnesses in the present case. Whether they were identical with the two saints whom the prophet heard conversing together in Dan_8:13, or not, must remain undecided. In any case, the following theories, which conflict with the context, must be rejected: (1) that one of the two אֲחֵרִים was Gabriel, whose disappearance was nowhere mentioned (Von Lengerke); (2) that one of them was Gabriel, but the other was a different angel, who was already introduced in the former scene, chap. Dan_12:5 et seq., but had not yet been designated by name (thus Hävernick, who consequently finds the three angels of this scene present in chap. 10, without exception, but without being clearly distinguished from each other); (3) that the אֲחֵרִים were the guardian angels or princes of Persia and Græcia, mentioned in Dan_10:20 (Jerome, Luther, Grotius, Sanctius, etc.); (4) that they were Judas and Simon Maccabæus (!—so J. D. Michaelis); (5) that they were the representatives of all who in the future should wait for the kingdom of God and inquire after the time of its coming (Cocceius); (6) that they were a mystical personification either of the law and prophecy (thus a gloss in the margin of the cod. Chisian.) or of reason and imagination (rabbins, e.g., Jos. Jacchiades). M. Geier already remarks respecting these and other theories of a similar character: “Hœc figmenta sunt hominum, textus auctoritate destituta.”—The one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river; rather, “the one here on the bank of the river, the other yonder on the bank,” etc. חַיְאֹר, usually the Heb. name for the Nile (which in the Egypt, itself is called ior [Sahid. jero, Memphit. jaro]; cf. Gesen. Dietr., s. v., יְאֹי), is here used to designate the “great river” Tigris, Dan_10:4. The reason is probably to be found in the fact that at an early period יְאֹר had acquired a purely appellative signification =חַנָּחָר חַגָּדוֹל, as may appear from the poetic use of יְאֹרִים in the sense of “channels” (cf. Job_28:10; Isa_33:21). It is useless for Hitzig and Kranichfeld to deny the purely appellative use of יְאֹר in this place, and to contend instead that the Tigris is here termed the Nile by way of metonymy—from which position they deduce consequences of a more or less arbitrary character (the former, that this designation reveals that the angel who had hitherto spoken, and who now, Dan_12:6 et seq., hovered over the water, was the guardian spirit of Egypt [cf. on chap. Dan_12:5] and also that the author of the entire book was of Egyptian descent [!]; the latter, that “the metonymical co-ordination in fact of the Nile, representing Egypt, and the Hiddekel, the representative of the coming time of trouble [?], was designed to indicate a second Egyptian deliverance” 11).
Dan_12:6. And one said to the man clothed in linen, etc. The subject of וַיּאֹמֶר is certainly not “each of the two, the one on this side and one on the other” (Theod., Syr., Kranichf., Kliefoth), but rather only one of them (חִאֶחָד מֵחֶם, Ibn-Ezra), as the analogy of Dan_8:13 clearly suggests, and probably the one nearest to the prophet, on the same side of the stream as the latter, and the only one whom he could hear. This angel represents the prophet himself in his inquiry, similar to Dan_8:13 (cf. 12:14); Jerome is therefore not in the wrong to that extent, when he substitutes “et dixi” for “et dixit (alter eorum),” without further question.—Which upon (or “above”) the waters of the river; supply “stood,” or “hovered.” This hovering over the waters of the Tigris denotes a new position, which was not mentioned in connection with the former introduction and description of the “man clothed in linen,” chap. 10, and with which Dan_8:10 is probably not to be compared (see on that passage). The fact that the revealing angel hovered over the stream was hardly for the mere purpose of placing him between the two inquiring angels on its banks, nor was it merely designed to recall the brooding of God’s Spirit over the waters, Gen_1:2 (Hitzig), but rather serves to designate the mighty and swiftly flowing stream of the Tigris—as formerly the sea (Dan_7:2)—as a symbol of the surging world of nations over which “the good spirit of the world-power” exercises sway as a beneficent and guiding principle of order (so Fuller, probably with correctness; but he combines with it the extremely forced hypothesis that the angels on the banks of the river were intended to denote the two-fold end of the world-period, hence the two manifestations of Christ, the first in lowliness and the second in glory!)—How long to the end of the wonders? i.e., “when (עַד־מָתַי, here equivalent to מָתַי) shall the end, the consummation, come of the wondrous things foretold by thee ?” The קֵץ is evidently that referred to in Dan_12:1 (cf. Dan_11:45), and therefore different from the אַחֲרִית, “the last end,” concerning which Daniel makes inquiry in Dan_12:8. The “wondrous things” (פְּלָאוֹת) themselves are the extraordinary sufferings and judicial punishments, whose instrument Antiochus, the Old-Test. Antichrist, was to become, and which are described at the end, beginning with Dan_11:30; cf. the similar use of נִפְלָאוֹת in Dan_8:24; Dan_11:36; and particularly Isa_29:14.
Dan_12:7. And he held up his right hand and his left hand. The raising of both hands was designed to impart a solemn emphasis to the act of taking the oath; cf. Deu_32:40; Eze_20:5.—And sware by him that liveth for ever. בְּחֵי־עוֹלָם, cf. Dan_4:31; Deut., l. c., and Rev_10:6. חַי is an adjective, not a substantive, in this place. cf. the similar predicates connected with the names of heathen gods also, e.g., ἀείζωος θεός in the inscrip. at Shakka (Burkhardt, Reisen, etc., pp. 147, 503); Πτολεμαῖος αἰωνόβιος on the Rosetta stone, lines 4, 9, 54. In connection with the true God Jehovah, the predicate vivens in æternum has the profounder significance, that He not only lives for ever, but also fixes the limit of evil for ever (Ewald, on this passage).—That for a time, times, and a half; i.e., after a time, and two times, and a half time, or, briefly, after three and a half (mystical [rather, literal]) years; cf. on Dan_7:25. To this limitation of time, which has become familiar from its former occurrence (cf. also Dan_8:14; Dan_9:27), is now added a further one, which, however, substantially coincides with it:—and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people; rather, “and when the scattering of a part of the holy people shall have ceased.” No material objection can be brought to bear against this exposition of the words וּכְכַלּוֹת נַפֵּץ יַד־עַם־קֹדֶש, since נִפֵּץ almost invariably has the meaning “to scatter, disperse,” in the prophetic usage (cf. Isa_11:12; Jer_13:14; Jer_51:20; Jer_51:23), while that of “break, shatter,” seems to be confined more particularly to poetry (cf. Psa_2:9; Psa_137:9), and further, since the rendering of יָד by “part, division,” seems to be adequately supported by parallels like Gen_47:24; 2Ki_11:7; Neh_11:1. It is not necessary, in order to obtain this meaning, to change the pointing so as to read דְכִכְלֹדת נֶפֶץ דגד׳, as Hitzig proposes The correct view is represented by Bertholdt, Dereser, Gesenius, Hävernick, Von Lengerke, Zündel, and substantially by Theodot., Vulg., Luther, etc., excepting only that the latter neglect to render יָד by “part,” and either interpret it by “might, warlike power,” or leave it altogether untranslated. On the other hand, Hengstenberg, Hofmann, Maurer, Auberlen, Kranichfeld, Füller, Kliefoth, Ewald, etc., render: “When the shattering of the hand of the holy people shall have ceased” (i.e., when its power shall have been entirely broken). In support of this view it is usually contended (with Hofmann, Weiss, und Erf., I. 314 et seq.) that the idea of reuniting the scattered Israel, which occurs nowhere else in Daniel, would be presented in this place without any preparation whatever. This is as if the chapter under consideration did not present a number of other ideas, which are wholly new and have never occurred previously, e.g., the prophecy of the resurrection in Dan_12:2; the shining of the wise like the brightness of the firmament, in Dan_12:3; and also the contents of Dan_12:10; or as if the mention in this book of the expectation that the dispersed people of God should be reunited, which was so familiar to the earlier prophets, could be in any way remarkable, when taken in connection with the correspondence, usually so thorough, of the range of this prophet’s ideas with that of his predecessors (cf. Joe_3:5 et seq.; Amo_9:11 et seq.; Isa_11:12; Jer_51:20 et seq., etc., etc.).12 It is entirely unnecessary to adopt the historical reference to 1Ma_5:23; 1Ma_5:45; 1Ma_5:53 et seq.; 2Ma_12:32, which Hitzig discovers in this passage, and regards as a proof that in this instance there is another vatic, exeventu. There is not the slightest difficulty, however, connected with the opinion that the facts recorded in those passages of the Maccabæan books (relating to the bringing back to Judæa of the scattered Jews who lived in Galilee and Gilead among the heathen, by Judas and Simon Maccabæus), constituted a first typical fulfilment and historical exemplification of the present prophecy.13—All this shall be finished. כָּל־אֵלֶּה, not the foregoing words, but the things spoken of, the sum of the prophecy beginning with Dan_11:2 (inclusive of the contents of Dan_12:1-3).14
Dan_12:8-9. The prophet’s question concerning the final end, and the angel’s encouraging reply. And I heard, but I understood not, namely, the information just imparted by the angel, involving a two-fold designation of the time, and also including the statement, which was especially incomprehensible to the prophet, that at the expiration of the three and a half times the dispersion of a part of Israel should have reached its end.—What shall be the end of these things? i.e., “which event is to be the last of these ‘wondrous things?” (Dan_12:6); by the occurrence of what event shall it be possible to know that the last end of the entire series of the predicted troubles and judgments has been reached?—Hence the אַחֲרִית, concerning which Daniel now inquires, does not directly coincide with the קֵץ to which the question of the angel in Dan_12:6 referred, but stands related to it as the final point in a course of development is related to a final period of extended duration.15
Dan_12:9. And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, etc. לֵךְ, as in Dan_12:13, an encouraging remark addressed to the prophet, who had approached with anxious questioning; cf. Ecc_9:7. This parallel demonstrates, if there were no other reason, that it is impossible to take הלךְ in the sense of “to die, to die peacefully, to lie down to sleep,” in this place, as Bertholdt, Hävernick, etc., propose.—For the words are closed up (or “concealed”) and sealed till the time of the end. cf. Dan_12:4, where חַדְּבָרִים, “the words,” is evidently employed in the same sense as here, namely, as designating the words of the prophecy, Dan_11:2 to Dan_12:3. The statement that these words are “concealed and sealed” till the time of the end, has, of course, a different meaning from the exhortation in that passage, “to conceal and seal” them. While that exhortation was intended to warn him earnestly against an inconsiderate desire to publish and prostitute to common uses the statements of the prophecy, the present reference to their hidden condition (i.e., to the mysterious nature of the revealed facts), is designed to encourage and to lead to humble submission to the Divine guidance, whose purposes cannot at first be understood, עֵת קֵץ, however, has no other signification in this place than in Dan_12:4, or than קֵץ in Dan_12:6.[16]
Dan_12:10-12. Approximate17determination of the final point (the אַחֲרִית) of the predicted development, for the purpose of affording additional comfort and encouragement to tie prophet, in his anxiety to receive information. Many shall be purified and made white, and tried, rather, “shall purify and cleanse themselves, and shall be thoroughly tried.” The terms recur from Dan_11:35, excepting that they are differently arranged, and that the two leading verbs, ברר “to purify”, and לבן “to cleanse,” are to be taken in a reflexive sense, corresponding to the Hithpael, while the third צרף (Niph.) expresses the passive sense of being thoroughly tried, or of being thoroughly purified (cf. Psa_12:7; Pro_30:5). With each of the verbs the idea of suffering and persecution on account of the faith is of course again involved, as forming the media of purifying.—But the wicked shall do wickedly. The ו in וְהִרְשִׁיעוּ is adversative, and serves to contrast the conduct of the wicked in the last time with the contemporaneous course pursued by the faithful. cf. the free rendering of the passage in Rev_22:11.—And none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand, namely, what is the meaning and ultimate aim of the predictions relating to the last time; consequently they shall then understand the prophecy, and by its light shall be able to correctly interpret the signs of the time (cf. Mat_24:32 et seq.; Luk_21:28 et seq.), and accordingly, to act and regulate their conduct with reference to the salvation of their souls,18 —Hitzig himself realizes that it would be exceedingly inappropriate to render מַשְׂכִּילִים by “teachers” in this passage; but why should he arbitrarily refuse to assign to it the meaning of “understanding ones,” which is the only one that can be admitted here, in the former passages (Dan_11:35; Dan_12:1), where it is no less appropriate?
Dan_12:11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and an abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and nicety days. On the construction of the words דּמֵעֵת חדּסַר דגר, which denote the beginning of the 1290 days, cf., e.g., Dan_2:16; Dan_5:15; Ecc_9:1; Jer_17:10, etc. חוּסַר, as appears from the following לָתֵת, which does not depend on עֵת after the manner of the genitive, is not an infinitive, but a “relative asyndetic connection of the præt. propheticum with עֵת” The לְ in לָתֵת may be regarded as “expressing the fateful purpose of God,” and therefore as taking the place of the jussive imperfect, which ordinarily serves that purpose (cf. Dan_11:18).—The expression שִׁקּוּץ שֹׁמֵם is distinguished from the synonymous הַשִּׁקּוּץ מְשֹׁמֵם, Dan_11:31, and also from שִׁקוּצִים מְשֹׁמֵם, solely by its greater brevity, which may be indicated by the combination “desolating abomination” (cf. also the substantially identical חַפֶּשַׁע שֹׁמֵם, Dan_8:13).19 It seems to be inadmissible because of the substantial identity of the expression with those former parallels, to translate this passage, with Wieseler (Die siebzig Wochen, etc., p. 109): “From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, till the desolating of the abomination, i.e., till the destruction of the idol-altar and the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabæus.”—It has already been shown, on Dan_8:14, that the 1290 days are substantially identical with the half year-week (Dan_9:27), or with the three and a half times (Dan_7:25; Dan_12:7), and that they involve an extension of that period by about half a month only (twelve to thirteen days); and it was also shown on that passage, that on the other hand the 2300 evening-mornings or 1,150 days shorten the same period by about four months. According to all the passages relating to the period of three and a half years as thus determined (in the one case exceeding those years by a few days, in the other falling below them by a few months), and especially according to the present passage, the terminus a quo for that period was the juncture when the daily sacrifice was taken away, and when the abomination of desolation was placed in the sanctuary. Our passage is silent with regard to the special terminus ad quem, which had in former passages been described as coincident, on the one hand with the judgment of the wicked author of such profanation (Dan_7:26; Dan_9:27), and on the other with the rededication of the profaned sanctuary (Dan_8:14); in other words, the revealing angel does not precisely determine the final point of the last time of trouble (the אַחֲרִית, concerning which Daniel inquired, Dan_12:8).20 He affords an indication, indeed, that a period of blessing should ensue on the expiration of the mystical three and a half years, by employing the beatitude of the following verse: “Blessed is he that waiteth,” etc.; but he refrains from determining the exact point of time in which it should begin. Upon this point his language is even undecided and equivocal, inasmuch as he fixes the limits of the intervening time, at first at 1290, but afterwards at 1335 days—thus in the one case exceeding the measure of exactly 1277 days by thirteen, and in the other by fifty-eight days. The troubled events of the Maccabæan period, which might deserve notice as the points of the beginning and the end of the historical equivalent of the three and a half years, do not present a satisfactory reason for such vacillating predictions; for the exact period required cannot be found in that epoch, however its limits may be fixed. E.g., if, with Bertholdt. Hävernick, Von Lengerke, et al., its conclusion is assigned to the day of rededicating the temple by Judas Maccabæus, or the 25th Chisleu (Dec. 15th) of the year B.C. 164 (1Ma_4:52), and the 1290 days are reckoned backward from that date, their beginning will fall on June 10th, B.C. 167, or more than five and a half months earlier than the event which is generally regarded as marking the commencement of the three and a half years (i.e., earlier than the abrogation of the daily sacrifice on the 15th Chisleu, 167; cf. 1Ma_1:54); nor will that reckoning consist with the arrival in Jerusalem of Apollonius, the commissioner of taxes, which might possibly be regarded as the introductory event of the period in question; for according to 1Ma_1:29, his arrival took place only about three months prior to the 15th Chisleu, 167, instead of 5th (cf. supra, on chap. 7). Further, the attempt to regard the Maccabæan dedication of the temple as the characteristic fact that marked the conclusion of the 1290 days, is antagonized by the circumstance that the troubles of the Jews had by no means reached their end at that time, since the dreadful tyrant Antiochus yet lived, the citadel of Zion was still garrisoned by enemies, their leader, Lysias, who had gone to Antioch, was employed in making preparation for farther extensive operations, in order to wipe out the shame of his former defeat by Judas, and, in addition, the Ammonites, Edomites, and other heathen neighbors threatened the little band of Jews led by the Maccabees with dangerous attacks (cf. 1Ma_4:35; 1Ma_4:41; 1Ma_5:1 et seq.).21 If we assume, with Hitzig, Bleek, Hofmann, Delitzsch, Füller, etc., that the death of Epiphanes, which took place somewhat later than the dedication of the temple, ended the 1290 days, we are met by the difficulty of ascertaining the date of his death, which has not been preserved by any historical authorities that have descended to our times, and for that reason cannot be definitely settled. That Epiphanes died precisely 140 days after the dedication of the temple, is a mere assumption of Hitzig, Bleek, etc., based on a comparison of the 1150 days of Dan_8:14,—which, it is asserted, extend exactly to the dedication—with the 1290 days of the present passage. This assumption appears the more uncertain, in proportion as, on the one hand, it becomes impossible to exactly accommodate those 1150 days between the desecration of the temple and the ascertained date of its rededication (cf. on Dan_8:14), and as, on the other hand, it becomes difficult to reconcile the date of the death of Antiochus, as thus assumed, with historical statements respecting his end which have been preserved to us.22 We are accordingly compelled to abandon every attempt to demonstrate an exact correspondence between the time indicated in the text and the periods of the Maccabæan æra of persecution, and to remain content with the hypothesis that the 1290 days have a merely mystical and symbolical significance.23 The merely approximate character of the correspondence between the prophetic measurement of time and the chronological relations of the history of its typical realization, with which we were obliged to content ourselves in a former instance, in connection with the 1150 days, returns here in a somewhat different manner. In that instance we found a considerable minus in comparison with the number 1277, and. here a smaller plus.24 It will scarcely become possible to ever assign a more definite reason for this two-fold discrepancy than that the seer’s attention was to be emphatically called to the approximation of the designation of time. cf. Kranichfeld also, p. 413, who justly observes in opposition to the artificial attempts to ascertain the exact historical grounds for the difference between the 1150 and 1290 days, which he adduces, that “it is, moreover, an assertion which can never be exegetically established, that the deliverance of the nation, the destruction of the foe, and the restoration of the order of worship are everywhere in this book regarded as separate in time. On the contrary, they designate the same juncture of time at the end, as seen in the prophet’s perspective, which appears from their indiscriminate application, or in other words, from the substitution of one for another; cf. Dan_7:25 with 26; Dan_8:14 with 25 et seq.; Dan_9:24 with 26, 27; Dan_11:45 with Dan_12:1.… For the rest, the profanation of the temple which an Antiochus Epiphanes imposed on Israel during three years, continues to be a historical exemplification of the facts revealed to Daniel’s prophetic vision, in the face of the 1290 days, and despite the fact that in the nature of the case it accords but relatively with them in a formal aspect.”25
Dan_12:12. Blessed is he that waiteth (or “is steadfast to the end”) and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. In view of its connection with the foregoing, the meaning of this exclamation can only be as follows: “After 1290 days have expired, the tribulation shall end; it shall not be completely ended, however, until forty-five additional days (one and a half months) have elapsed, hence, until a total of 1335 days has been reached.” Here again we believe ourselves obliged to rest satisfied with finding a symbolic and approximate value in the relation of the several numbers to each other; cf. the remarks on this point in a former connection, Eth.-fund. principles, etc., on chap. 8 No. 1. Among the various attempts that have been made to explain with historical accuracy the difference of forty-five days between the time fixed by Dan_12:11 and that given in Dan_12:12, none have succeeded in realizing an entirely satisfactory result: e.g., (1) that of Hitzig, based on the assumption that the 1335 days extend to the reception from Tabæ of the tidings respecting the death of Antiochus, forty-five (?) days subsequent to his demise; (2) the assumption of Füller, that the 15th Xanthicus (April) of the year B.C. 164 (?), when a letter from Antiochus V. Eupator to the Jews reached Jerusalem, according to 2 Maccabees 11, which contained the welcome proffer of peace, marks the end of the 1335 days; and (3) the theory of Bertholdt, Hävernick, Von Lengerke, Wieseler, etc., that while the 1290 days extended to the dedication of the temple, the 1335 days reached down to the death of Antiochus, forty-five days afterward. Against the latter opinion it may be objected that the interval between the dedication of the temple and the death of Antiochus was unquestionably longer than forty-five days; or, in other words, that Epiphanes did not die as early as the month of Shebat in the year 148 æ. Sel., as those scholars (including Wieseler in Herzog’s Real-Encyklop., I. 387, Art. Antiochus) assume, in contradiction of 1Ma_6:16 (cf. also Hitzig, p. 226, and Füller, p. 357 et seq.).26 The two former theories, on the other hand, are open to the objection that the reception of the news from Tabæ of the king’s death, and also of the offers of peace from Antioch, were events of far too little importance to lead the writer (whether prophesying ex eventu, or by virtue of a disclosure of the future from God) to assign to either of them the dignity of marking the final conclusion of all troubles. The letter from Eupator was merely an offer of peace, and and not the peace itself; and at the time both of its arrival and of the tidings from Tabæ, the horizon of Judæa was far too dark to enable a pseudo-Daniel, writing at that day, to announce the end of all the sufferings of his nation as having already arrived, or as being immediately at hand (cf. 1Ma_4:35; 1Ma_6:17 et seq.), on the ground merely that such messages had been received. The mode of escape from the difficulty that is adopted by Kirmss, Bleek, Delitzsch, et al., is however still more questionable than the reference of the 1335 days to any of the events that were adduced in support of the foregoing theories. It assumes that some other fact of an encouraging nature, which is no longer found in our historical documents, formed the terminus ad quem of the 1335 days of the prophet; and is clearly nothing more than an expedient prompted by embarrassment and helpless discouragement, which feelings our theory of the merely symbolic value of the designation of time serves to justify better than any other hypothesis. cf. Kliefoth, p. Dan 514: “In extending this period of 1290 days by forty-five, the design probably was merely to indicate that whoever should live in patience and religious faith beyond the 1290 days, i.e., beyond the death of the wicked oppressor Antiochus, should be accounted blessed. The forty-five days are mentioned for the purpose merely of expressing that idea of surviving, and the form of the expression was governed solely by a desire to retain the analogy of Dan_12:11.” Also Kranichfeld, p. Dan 416: “The period of final conflict which leads to the victory is here described as being very brief, comparatively, for the purpose of comforting and encouraging the pious ones; it is not measured by years, but merely by fractions of months. The half of a cycle of three months here takes the place of the limited period in the mind of the writer, according to Dan_9:26; Dan_8:25, etc.; and by the arithmetical measurement of time by days which is current in this book, it obtains the forty-five days which lie outside of the period of 1290 days or three and a half times,” etc. cf. also the Eth. -fund, principles, No. 2.
Dan_12:13. Concluding exhortation and promise. But go thou thy way (rather, “on”) till the end. וְאַתָּה, properly, “and: thou,” with conclusive ו, but which may also be taken in an adversative sense, because it leads over from the foregoing to the close in an encouraging manner. לֵךְ לֵקּץ is of course to be understood according to the analogy of Dan_12:9 : “go on, toward the final point of the predicted events;” not “go thy way” (Hitzig), nor yet “go toward thy end” (Hävernick, Füller, Kliefoth, etc.), for קֵץ is clearly shown by the article to refer to the same end as that mentioned in Dan_12:9.—For thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days; i.e., thou shalt rest in the grave, in the quiet sleep of death (cf. Isa_57:2, and supra, Dan_12:2). The meaning is, “that thou mayest rest, and enter on thy lot,” etc., i.e., that thou mayest receive thy portion of the inheritance at the judgment of eternal recompense; cf. Dan_7:18; Dan_7:27; Rev_20:6. The thought refers back undeniably to Dan_12:2-3, hence to the Messianic recompense, of which Daniel also should partake, and a majority of interpreters recognize that fact; but they generally pervert the meaning of וְתַעֲמֹד, so as to make it apply to the resurrection (standing up) for the purpose of being thus recompensed. The correct view in this respect is advocated, e.g., by Ewald, Kamphausen, Kranichfeld, etc.—Hitzig’s interpretation is very flat and exceedingly forced (in partial imitation of Grotius and Dathe): “And thou, go on to the goal, and thou mayest be content (!), and attend to thy office (!) for the end of days.”—[“גּוֹרָל, lot, of the inheritance divided to the Israelites by lot, referred to the inheritance of the saints in light (Col_1:12), which shall be possessed by the righteous after the resurrection from the dead in the heavenly Jerusalem. לְקֵץ הַיָּמִים, to=at the end of the days, i.e., not=אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, in the Messianic (rather Antiochian) time, but in the last days, when, after the judgment of the world, the kingdom of glory shall appear.—Well shall it be for us if in the end of our days we too are able to depart hence with such consolation of hope!”—Keil.]
ethico-fundamental principles related to the history of salvation, apolo-getical remarks, and homiletical suggestions
1. The fundamental dogmatic thought that is especially prominent in this closing section is the future resurrection of the dead and their eternal destiny, as predicted in Dan_12:1-3, and as again repeated and confirmed in the closing words of Dan_12:13. That in the meaning of the book this resurrection is not to be regarded as confined to Israel only, but rather as universal in its scope, has been shown in the remarks on Dan_12:2. It remains only to briefly answer the important question respecting the relation of that prediction to the Maccabæan age, which primarily afforded a typical and preliminary realization only of the prophecies of Daniel in general. Is it necessary, for instance, to take the entire prophecy in a figurative sense, as Dereser does, and to apply it merely to a spiritual or national resurrection of the nation from its former condition of apparent helplessness and death?27 Or are we, with Bertholdt, Hitzig, and the remaining rationalistic exegetes, to charge the prophet with having committed a gross error, in conceiving of the end of the world, the resurrection, and the judgment as immediately consequent on the death of Ant. Epiphanes?—Neither of the two would be correct; on the contrary, we are again reminded of the perspective character of prophetic vision in this connection, according to which the interval between the preliminary and the ultimate end was overlooked, from the point of view occupied by the prophesying seer long before either came to pass. By virtue of this perspective vision, the Old-Test, and the New-Test. Antichrists become one, which is true also of all the circumstances and results connected with their appearance. “As Antiochus became a type of Antichrist, so the oppression of the Old-Test, community of God’s people by him became a type of the oppression of the New-Test, congregation of the people of God by the latter. And as little as it surprises us that Joe_3:1 et seq. should make the preliminary signs of the end follow immediately upon the pouring out of God’s Spirit, with which the last world-period begins, without remarking the period intervening between them; or as easily as we can explain the fact that Amos 9 should predict the restoration of the fallen tabernacle of David and the final return of Israel to its native land, immediately after the judgment which he denounces upon the nation, thus overlooking the whole of the immense period in the course of which Israel indeed returned to its country, but was a second time expelled by the Romans; or as little as we charge untruthfulness upon the prophet Ezekiel, when, in chap. 36, he announces to the mountains of Israel the future return of the nation, and adds that God would show greater kindness to them than ever before, because this was not fulfilled on their first return; or as natural as we find it that in chap. 11 Isaiah should connect a description of the glory and peace of Christ’s kingdom, which shall only be realized at His second coming, with the words, “there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,” which are regarded as bearing on the appearance of Christ in lowliness, thus viewing Christ’s first and second advents together; so little should it surprise us or seem incompatible with the nature of prophecy, that the present prediction should represent the Seleucid persecution as being immediately followed by the full and final deliverance of the nation, without observing that a long series of years intervenes between the two.… Call it prophetic limitation, or whatever else we will, it is nevertheless the manner of the prophets j and the fact that we find it exemplified in the present instance is to us an evidence that the prophecy is genuine. Why do its opponents neglect to show how the prophecy respecting the resurrection of the dead immediately after the decease of Antiochus can be reconciled with their view concerning the composition of the book? If it was written immediately before the death of Antiochus, what was there to excite the hope that the time of blessing and the resurrection of the dead should follow immediately afterward? And if it was felt that such a hope was warranted, and it was not realized, were men not deceived? Who would have attached further value to such a mistaken prophecy?—But if it was composed after the death of Antiochus, it becomes wholly inconceivable that the false prophet should have compromised his pretended prophecy by this conclusion. But the features that are inconceivable on the presumption that the prophecy is spurious, are readily explained on the view that it was the actual Daniel who prophesied thus, centuries before Antiochus. The truth of his prophecy was in that case so incontestably assured in the time of Antiochus, that the apparent failure of its prediction concerning the resurrection of the dead (or, more properly, the delay of its fulfilment) was no longer sufficient to cast a doubt upon it. In one word, this passage of our book, usually considered so difficult, is so little worthy to be regarded as the heel of Achilles in the case, that it rather constitutes its strength, before which its assailants are put to shame” (Fuller, p. 343 et seq.).—It should, however, be observed in this connection that the leading idea in the prophecy in Dan_12:1-3 is not the prediction of the resurrection, but rather the universal and eternal recompense to be meted out to them. The rising of the many “sleepers in the dust of the earth,” as predicted in Dan_12:2, is at bottom a mere auxiliary thought, or a preparation for the principal feature of the prophecy, consisting in the promise of everlasting life to the pious, and the denouncing of everlasting shame and torment upon the wicked. Inasmuch as the judgment upon the Old-Test. Antichrist, as foretold in a former passage (Dan_11:45), forms, in a measure, the opening act and point of commencement of this great recompensing judgment, all subsequent instances of such judgment must appear as a continued series of displays of the Divine righteousness, whose final conclusion at the last judgment will constitute the highest and most perfect, but not the only fulfilment of this prophetic passage. Among such displays of God’s justice may be reckoned the end of the tyrant Herod and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the subjugation of the Eastern churches by Islamism and the overthrow of the Middle-age Papal church by the Reformation.—As the eternal recompense, so the awaking of the dead, which forms its substratum and preliminary condition, reaches far into the history of time and earth, extending itself close to the historical position of our prophet, even though Jesus Christ, as the first fruits of them that sleep, began the blessed series of those who shall have a part in the “resurrection of the just” (Luk_14:14; Luk_20:36; 1Co_15:20 et seq.), and though, consequently. He was the first who could say with entire truth, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear him shall live” (Joh_5:25; of. 12:28, 29). Both the preliminary judgment of the world, which is transpiring in the events of history, and the ethical resurrection in Christ Jesus of the spiritually dead, which is the basis and pre-condition of the future resurrection of all flesh,—both these have their beginning at the very point where the prophet’s scope of vision ends, and by that fact attest the truth and the Divine origin of his predictions, to which the Lord would assuredly not have repeatedly appealed and referred, had He not considered this book equal, in its inspired character, to any of the remaining prophets of the Old Covenant (cf. the Introd. § 6).
2. The prophecy, which forms the second leading thought of this section, relates to the point of time of the end. It repeats in substance the mystical [?] measure of time noticed in a former section, by which the last severe trouble of God’s people should continue during three and a half times, and adds a further period of one and a half months, during which the last remnants of suffering and trouble shall be removed. It was shown above that the historical conditions of the Maccabæan period afford but little countenance to the assumption that these periods of 1290 and 1335 days were invented to accord with the course of events in the experience of the past. It was also shown in a former instance (on Dan_7:25) that the underlying idea, which is common to all the parallel mystical limitations of time (the half-week, the three and a half times, the 1150, 1290, 1335 days), is that the time of suffering should be shortened,—that the time of tribulation should indeed begin, but should be broken through at the middle, and by the grace of God should quickly be brought to its close. It is consequently a time to which the words of the Saviour respecting the shortening of the days of tribulation (κολοβωθῆναι, Mat_24:22; Mar_13:20) will apply. It will be sufficient to notice, in this connection, that this mysterious period, which received a first approximate [!] fulfilment in the great religious persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, appeared a second time in the Jewish war, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (A.D. 66–70), and that a third and final fulfilment of the same period is in anticipation, in the last days before the return of Christ, according to Rev_12:14; Rev_13:5, when the church shall be overtaken by a time of severe trial and purification. cf. Auberlen (Daniel, p. 287), who, somewhat vaguely and generally characterizes the three and a half times as “the period of the world-power, during which the supremacy over the kingdom of heaven is given to the earthly kingdoms,” and then proceeds: “So, then, this number is resumed in the Apocalypse, in order to characterize the times of the heathen, during which Jerusalem is trodden under foot, and in which, consequently, the kingdom of God has wholly lost its outward and visible existence in the earth—hence the times from the Roman destruction of Jerusalem to the return of Christ (more correctly, without doubt, the last and most momentous epoch of that time, or the epoch of the New-Test. Antichrist). cf. Luk_21:24, and Rev_11:2, both of which speak of the treading under foot of the holy city by the heathen, to continue, according to the former passage, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, and, according to the latter, until forty-two months(=3½ years=1260 days) are past. To this negative designation Rev_13:5 adds a positive, according to which the forty-two months denote the duration of the power of the beast, i.e., of the world-power. The only remaining passage in the Apocalypse which mentions the 1260 days, Dan_11:3, might likewise be explained by this opinion.… The congregation therefore finds room in the heathen world, but it is also given over to the dominion of the world-power; it rests under the protection of that power, but also under its pressure; it is a suffering and militant church to this day. Precisely this correlation of protection and oppression forms the specific feature of the relation of the congregation to the world-power throughout the history of the church.” Delitzsch (p. 285) is more cautious, that is, he avoids the excessive extension of the three and a half times until they cover a period of many centuries, and contents himself with observing that “in the anti-typical history of the last times, these measures of time, the three and a half years, 1290 and 1385 days, shall yet become important;” and Kliefoth (p. 503) contends for that interpretation of the three and a half times which holds that they denote “the highest development of the power of Antichrist, and his end,” immediately before the manifestation of Christ.
Probably the opinion of those is likewise not to be at once rejected, who hold that there was also a typical relation between the three and a half times of Daniel and the public life of Jesus, which covered three to four years, whether they regard the latter period as a period of continued trial and suffering, which became more intense toward its close (cf. Luk_13:6-9 : the three years of laborious and vain attempts on the part of the Lord to convert the barren fig-tree, Israel), or whether they find in it the first half of the mystical week mentioned in Dan_9:27, and let the Second, which corresponds directly to the three and a half years, follow immediately afterward (cf. supra, the history of the exposition of Dan_9:24-27). Ebrard has recently put forth a particularly noteworthy effort to carry out the latter of these views, with special regard to the chronology of the leading events in the life of Christ, although his attempt involves much that is artificial and arbitrary (Christliche Dogmatik, 2d ed., II. 747; cf. his Kritik der evang. Geschichte, 3d ed., pp. 165, 196 et seq.;—and for a criticism of his views, cf. Bähring, in Schenkel’s Allg. kirchl. Zeitschrift, 1867, p. 579).
3. Homiletical suggestions.—As in the Oratio eschatologica by Christ (Matthew 24 par.) and especially in its intermediate parts (12:29–36), so in the present section there are two principal questions whose investigation devolves on the homiletical student; and they succeed each other in the same order as in that section of the gospels: (1) the question concerning the preconditions and the course of the end of the world and the final judgment (see Dan_12:1-3); and (2) the question relating to the preceding development, or to the time of the end of the world (see Dan_12:5 et seq.). In answer to the first question, Dan_12:1-3 indicate that the sufferings and sorrows of God’s people shall attain to an unprecedented height, as a necessary preparation for their deliverance by the Messiah; and further, that the general resurrection of all the dead, whether pious or godless, forms a prerequisite and preparation to pave the way for the judgment of the world, which is to dispense eternal rewards and punishments. The revealing angel answers the second question in Dan_12:7; Dan_12:11-12, so far as to state that the last times shall constitute a period of suffering, through which the faithful ones must urge their way, but which shall be shortened and broken through at the middle by the grace of God,—in which is contained, at the same time, a reference to the sudden and unexpected introduction of the final time of the end, or to the coming of the judge of the world like a thief in the night (Mat_24:36; Mat_24:42; Mat_24:44; Luk_21:34 et seq.; 1Th_5:2 et seq.). The solution of both questions leads to an exhortation to patient, contented, and watchful waiting for the fulfilment of the prophecy respecting the last end (Dan_12:4; Dan_12:9; Dan_12:13—cf. Mat_24:32 et seq., Mat_24:42 et seq.; Mat_25:1 cf seq.). Thus all the leading features of the Scriptural doctrine of the last things (Mors tua, judicium postremum, gloria cœli, et dolor inferni, etc.) are comprehended within the narrow limits of this chapter, and are there properly arranged for practical and edifying discussion, either in a single study or in several.
Single passages.
On Dan_12:1, Luther: “This does not signify physical sufferings, which were far greater at the destruction of Jerusalem, in Rome, and in many other cities and countries; but the suffering of souls, or the spiritual affliction of the church, as prefigured by the sufferings of Christ. For physical sufferings are temporary, and cease with the body. But the question here is whether the church shall fall or stand, which the devil had attacked in two directions through the agency of Antichrist: on the one hand, by an Epicurean contempt for the sacraments and the Word of God, on the other, by the terrors and despair of conscience, in which no proper comfort of the graces (was found), but only wretched tortures, which vexed men with the sufficiency of their own doings and with their works (of which, however, the Epicureans and heathen know nothing); hence, that it was time that Michael should arouse himself, and not suffer Christendom to be destroyed at its last-gasp, but to comfort and collect it again by his beneficent word of grace.”—Melancthon: “Semper oportet nobis notam esse et infixam animis hanc doctrinam, quod Ecclesia sit subjecta cruci, et cur sit subjecta, videlicit, quia vult Deus intelligi ab Ecclesia iram adversus peccatum, quam mundus contemnit. … Agnoscant igitur pii Ecclesiœ, œrumnas, et propter Dei gloriam ac propriam salutem et publicam necessitatem acrius incumbant in Evangelii studium, et toto pectore Deum, innocent, ut Ecclesiam conservet, defendat, et augeat.—Quatuor autem consolationes h. l. traduntur, quœ piis omnibus semper in conspectu esse debent: 1. Prima est, quod Ecclesia non sit penitus interitura, sed tunc quoque in illis periculis duratura. 2. Secunda consolatio, quod ibi sunt futura, Ecclesiœ membra, ubicumque erunt amplectentes puram Evangelii doctrinam; erit enim, ut inquit, dispersio populi (cf. Dan_12:7). 3. Tertia consolatio, quod in his tantis periculis habitura sit Ecclesia defensorem Filium Dei (Michaelem). 4. Quarta consolatio est, quam hie quoque proponit Angelus: Quum cerumnœ non sint futurœ perpetuœ, hac spe facilius eas feramus, quod pits promittitur gloriosa liberatio et œterna lœtitia; impiis vero denuntiantur œterni cruciatus.”—Starke: “God permits the persecution of His church to reach its highest point that His help may be so much the more glorious.”
On Dan_12:2-3, Jerome: “Oppresso Antichristo et spiritu Salvatoris extincto salvabitur populus, qui scriptus fuerit in libro Dei, et pro diversitate meritorum alii resurgent in vitam œternam, et alii in opprobrium sempiternum. Magistri autem habebunt similitudinem cœlli, et qui alios erudierunt, stellarum fulgori comparabuntur. Non enim sufficit scire sapientiam, nisi etalios erudias; tacitusque sermo doctrinæ, alium non ædificans (cfr. 1Co_14:3 ss.), mercedem operis recipere non potest.“—Melancthon:” Facilius ferimus hujus vitœ miserias, cum quasi metam prospicimus, et scimus aliquando Ecclesiam ex tantis malis eluctaturam esse.… Videmus nunc quidem misere dissipatum esse populum Dei: quare non procul abest resuscitatio mortuorum.”—Starke: “Since the faithful martyrs, who loved not their lives unto the death, are to have the preference over others in the resurrection (1Co_15:23 et seq.), should it contradict the righteousness of God that the greatest persecutors of the church, as the first-born sons of hell, should be raised before the general resurrection of the dead, and be the first to be cast into hell with soul and body (comp. Rev_19:20 with Rom_2:9)?—Forward, then, ye teachers of the Gospel! do not become wearied in your office! Rather devote tongue, pen, and life to point men to Christ as the true righteousness! Suffer in patience everything that the wicked world can do to you on that account! The magnitude of your gracious reward is well worth such industry and patience!” On Dan_12:4, Jerome: “Etiam in Apocalypsi Joannis liber videtur signatus septem sigillis intus et foris.… Librum autem illum potest solvere, qui Scripturarun sacramenta cognovit, et intelligit œnigmata et verba tenebrosa propter mysteriorum magnitudinem, et interpretatur parabolas, et occiddentem literam transfert in spiritum vivificantem.”—Osiander: “The Divine prophecies are only then correctly understood when they are in course of fulfilment (cf. 2Pe_1:20).”
On Dan_12:7; Dan_12:11-12, Melancthon: “Metœ sunt temporum mirabili consilio Dei constitutœ. Et quanquam Christus diem ilium soli patri notum esse inquit nec vult nos curiose quœrere certum diem out annum, sed semper velut in statione paratos expectare ilium lœtissimum diem, quo se ostendet universo humano generi et cum sua Ecclesia triumphabit; tamen brevitas hujus mundi varie significata est.”—Calvin: “Quamvis Daniel non stulta curiositate inductus quœsierit ex Angelo de fine mirabilium, tamen non obtinet, quod petebat, quia scilicet voluit Deus ad modum aliquem intelligi, quœ prœdixerat, sed tamen aliquid manere occultum, usquedum veniret maturum plenæ revalationis tempus. Hœc igitur ratio est, cur Angelus non exaudiat Danielem. Pium quidem erat ejus votum (nequc enim optat quicquam scire plus quam jus esset), verum Deus scit quid opus sit, ideo non concessit, quod optabat.”—Geier (in Starke): “The last times will be terrible and dangerous; but they have their definite limits.”
On Dan_12:10, Theodoret: Οὐδὲ γὰρ δεῖ πᾶσιν α̇πλῶς προσκεῖσθαι τὰ θεῖα ἀλλ̓ οἱ μὲν νοήμονες διὰ τῆς ἄνωθεν αὐτοῖς χορηγουμένης γνώσεως συνήσουσιν, οἱςδὲ ἀνομία καὶ δυσσεβία συξῶντες οὐδὲν τῶν ἑγκειυένων νοῆσαι δυνήσονται ὅταν δὲ ἕλθη τὰ πράγματα, σαφῶς τὰς περὶ τούτων μαθήσονται προφητσίας.—Luther: “For however brightly and powerfully the Gospel moves, and however strong the church may be, there must still be heretics and false teachers to prove her, in order that the approved ones may be manifest; and these same heretics are fond of taking sides with kings and great lords. Consequently the heretics will continue to the end.… But to the godless he (the prophet, or, rather, his prophecy) is of no service, as he himself remarks: the wicked shall remain wicked, and not regard it. For this prophecy and similar ones were not written that we might (beforehand exactly) know history and the troubles of the future, so as to feed our curiosity as with an item of news; but that the pious might comfort themselves and rejoice over them, and that they should strengthen their faith and hope in patience, as those that see and-hear that their wretchedness shall have an end, and that they, delivered from sin, death, the devil, and every evil, shall come to Christ in heaven, in his blessed eternal kingdom.”
On Dan_12:13, Tübing. Bibel: “How blessed will it seem to rest in the bosom of the Lord, after the work of this life is done, until the day of restitution shall come, when we shall arise, every one to the gracious lot that shall fall to him.”—Starke: “At length the sufferings of the faithful reach a joyous end; then follow rest and sweet refreshing, and finally a glorious resurrection, when with their glorified bodies they shall enter into the joy of their Lord.” Blessed is he who with Daniel shall receive a similar lot. Amen.
Footnotes:
[1][נָחְיְתָח, was made to exist, or was gone through, contains the idea of exhaustion.—
[2]חַיְאֹר, strictly, the canal, properly applied to the Nile, but here used of any alluvial stream.—
[3]The reduplicated forms מִמַּעַל לְמֵימֵי seem to call special attention to the position of this being, which was not precisely defined before, Dan_5:5.—
[4]The pronoun is emphatic]
[5][Keil (as we have seen) makes the transition from the Antiochian to the Messianic æera occur at an earlier point in the prophecy, and he urges the connective force of the introductory clause of the verse, especially the ו of consecution as a proof that no break or interval can be admitted here. This is an unnecessary straining of the phraseology. In fact, phrases of date, like בִּעֵת חַהִיא here, usually indicate a transition rather than a close sequence. cf. Stuart, who instances especially Isa_19:23; Isa_26:1; and even Dan_2:44.]
[6][Keil, on the other hand, thinks that “וּבָעֵת חַהִיא points back to בְּעֵת קֵץ (Dan_11:40),” which he interprets as “the time of the end, when the hostile persecutor rises up to subdue the whole world,” i.e., the final Antichrist. The transition appears to us precisely analogous to that found in our Lord’s eschatological discourse, Mat_24:29; Mar_13:24; and it seems to stand here, as there, for a connecting link between the near and the remote application of the prediction. The distress of the Antiochian persecution, like that of the final siege of Jerusalem, is made the symbol of the ecclesiastico-political throes of the final catastrophe, the downfall of Judaism being there the precursor of that of the world itself. The phrase, “In that time,” thus becomes parallel with the formula, “In that day,” or, “In those days,” “In the last day,” etc., as a stereotyped designation of the Messianic æra. It is the constant practice of the prophets to view these series of future events on the same plane and in the same perspective, the interval, as well that between the close of the Old Dispensation and the introduction of the New, as that between the establishment of the latter and its ultimate triumph, being left out of view. There is thus always a measure of indenniteness in the prophetical utterances on these points, especially in the phraseology relating to these “times and seasons.”]
[7]Cf. Calvin on that passage: “Multos hie ponit pro omnibus, ut certum est. Neque hœc locutio debet nobis videri absurda. Non enim rabbino opponii angelus omnibus vel paucis, sed opponit uni; cfr. Rom_5:15; Rom_5:19.” [Keil observes that “the angel has it not in view to give a general statement regarding the resurrection of the dead, but only discloses on this point that the final salvation of the people shall not be limited to those still living at the end of the great tribulation, but shall include also those who have lost their lives during the period of the tribulation.” This, however, seems an unnecessary limitation of the “many,” which Keil himself admits “can only be rightly interpreted from the context.” Stuart clearly argues that the connection gives it here the universal sense.]
[8][This view is unnecessary, and places the prophet in a false light. Daniel does not explicitly say that these events are simultaneous, if we have rightly apprehended and expounded his language. He did not indeed clearly apprehend the length of the interval, but we are not warranted in saying that he was not aware there was any. Much less does he assert it.]
[9][Keil of course disputes this interval at the place assigned to it by our author. Stuart also is unable to discover it there. Both lay undue stress upon the connecting link, “In that time.”]
[10][Keil, on the other hand, inclines (with Bertholdt, Hitzig, Auberlen, Kliefoth) to “understand by the חַסֵּפֶר whole book. For, as Kliefoth remarks, the angel will close, Dan_12:4, the revelation, and along with it the whole prophetical work of Daniel, and dismiss him from his prophetical office, as he afterwards, Dan_12:13, does, after he has given him, Dan_12:5-12, disclosures regarding the periods of these wonderful things that were announced. He must seal the book, i.e., guard it securely from disfigurement, ‘till the time of the end,’ because its contents stretch out to the end. cf. Dan_8:26, where the reason for the sealing is stated in the words, ‘for yet it shall be for many days.’ Instead of such a statement as that, the time of the end is here briefly named as the terminus, down to which the revelation reaches, in harmony with the contents of Dan_11:40 to Dan_12:3, which comprehends the events of the time of the end.”]
[11][Keil (after Kliefoth) thus moderates the latter position: “The river Hiddekel (Tigris) was a figure of the Persian world-power, through whose territory it flowed (cf. for the prophetic type, Isa_8:6-7 : Psa_124:3-4), and the designation of the river as יְאֹר, Nile, contains an allusion to the deliverance of Israel from the power of Egypt, which in its essence was to be repeated in the future.”]
[12][Keil defends the rendering of נִפֵּץ by shatter, rather than “scatter,” and of כַּלֹות by completion, rather than “ceasing;” but the sense is not materially different in either case, if the prophecy refer to the persecution by Antiochus, for the hour of striking for independence was coincident with that of the deepest oppression. The metaphorical signification of power for יַד, however, seems preferable as being more usual and natural than that of part; and the latter savors too much of a diplomatic rendering.]
[13][It may reasonably be objected to this reference that it is too petty, and requires too special a rendering of the words to be of any great value]
[14][The “fulfilment of all these things” obviously is explained by the more definite statement in Dan_12:11-12, for the prophet’s inquiry was expressly in order to elicit such an explanation. This is precisely analogous to our Lord’s eschatological data, Mat_25:34. etc.; where the nearer event alone is chronologically determined, and the final one left vague (Mat_25:36).]
[15][Keil likewise distinguishes between קֵץ and אַחֲרִית but neither his nor the author’s distinction seems to be very clear or well, founded. In the present instance אַחֲרִית seems to denote the nearer sequel of the pressing emergencies in immediate view, and קֵץ the more distant consummation of the entire prophecy. If so, the angel does not fully answer the inquiry of Dan_12:6, but does Daniel’s, by designating only the terminus of the Antiochian history. “Hitzig is altogether correct; in thus stating the (latter) question: ‘What, i.e., which event is the uttermost, the last of the פְּלָאוֹת, that stands before the end?’ ” (Keil).]
[16][In like manner the “closing and sealing” (סתם and חתם in both cases) can be no other here than in Dan_12:4. “But since, according to Dan_12:4, Daniel himself must shut up and seal the book, the participles in this clause, assigning the reason for לֵךְ, cannot have the meaning of the perfect, but only state what is or shall be done; shut up—they shall be (remain) till the time of the end; thus they only denote the shutting up and sealing, which must be accomplished by Daniel. …The shutting up and sealing. …can only consist in this, that the book should be preserved in security against any defacement of its contents, so that it might be capable of being read at all times down to the time of the end, and might be used by God’s people for the strengthening of their faith; cf. Dan_8:26”—Keil.]
[17][It is strange that a commentator will persist in calling this an “approximate estimate,” when its sole object was to clear up uncertainty as to the duration of the events in prospect, and when, accordingly, precise periods of time are assigned in explicit and varied terms. Surely the whole subject is designedly left in doubt if this language does not definitely determine it.]
[18][It is thus true that history in a measure interprets prophecy, or rather enables the interpreter to give vividness and detail to predictions in themselves general and obscure. So also seeing is better than reading a description, however clear. But it is not necessary to wait for the accomplishment of prophecy in order to gain an intelligent comprehension of its essential import. To maintain this would be equivalent to denying any intelligible use of language. Nor is it true, as many expositors assert, that Daniel himself did not understand these prophecies. Dan_12:8 only means that he did not clearly see the application of the announcement in Dan_12:7 to the previous prophetic declarations, especially the mode of computing the note of time there given. This point is cleared up by the particular specifications of the present communication, and Daniel is therefore dismissed with a peaceful sense of full intelligence.]
[19][The neut שֹׁמֵם, however, is not in itself synonymous with the act. מְשֹׁמֵם; it here becomes equivalent to it only by reason of the connection with שִׁקּוּץ. “In Dan_11:31, where the subject spoken of is the proceedings of the enemy causing desolation, the abomination is viewed as מְּשֹׁמֵם, bringing desolation; here, with reference to the end of those proceedings” (rather, with reference to the persecuted sufferers as being profaned by it), “as שֹׁמֵם, brought to desolation; cf. on Dan_9:27” (Keil).]
[20][After the precise designation of the terminus ad quem in the passage which our author last refers to, there seemed to the prophet, or rather to his angelic instructor, no need of its repetition here. Every reader would spontaneously understand the period in question, dating from an idolatrous installation, to continue till the removal of the offensive and impious object. It is evidently the term of the sacrilege.]
[21][It ought to be observed, on the contrary, that the 1,290 days are not assigned as the limit of the troubles, but only of the profanation.]
[22]The precarious character of all combinations bearing on this question may appear from the following calculation by Hitzig (p. 225 et seq.): “. … Antiochus (1Ma_1:10) ascended the throne in the year 137 æ. Sel., and he died (1Ma_6:16) in the year 149; consequently his reign falls between April, B.C. 170 and March, 163. But we possess a coin of seleucus bearing the number of the year PAZ (see Eckhel, Doctr. num., iii. 222), which shows that Seleucus still reigned at least at the beginning of the last quarter of B.C. 176. Antiochus became king during the month of October, 176, at the earliest; and if he reigned not quite twelve years, according to Appian, Syr., c. 66, we may perhaps regard the eleven years 175–165 as being full, and obtain, in addition, the fraction of the twelfth year by including a remnant of 176 possibly, and certainly by adding the first months of 164 (at least as far as April). Accordingly if, as we believe, the author referred in Dan_12:11 to the death of Antiochus as the end of the period, it follows that the latter died 140 days after the dedication of the temple (see on Dan_8:14), on the fifteenth to eighteenth day of the second month 149 (Jewish), i.e., on the thirteenth of the eighth month (Artemisius) 148 Sel. This result harmonizes excellently with that coin, and also with Appian (?). On the other hand, when Eusebius (Chron. 1:348) assigns eleven years to the reign of Antiochus, from Olymp. 151, 3, to Olymp. 154, 1, or from B.C. 174 to 164, there is an error, not only with respect to the point of departure, but also with regard to the end, since the death of the king transpired during the second half of the Olympiad; Antiochus, died in Olymp. 153, 4.” Bleek ventures a similar calculation (Theolog. Zeitschr., p. 293 et seq.), in which the words “perhaps, probably, I believe,” occur suspiciously often.
[23]But this convenient refuge of the puzzled expositor is cut off by the repeated and varied form of the numbers so absolutely given. If all was symbolical, why these changes, and why these particular numbers?]
[24][This excess or deficiency is occasioned by the erroneous interpretation of the “2300 evening-mornings” as being 1150 days (cf. on Dan_8:14), and by taking the three and a half years too strictly.]
[25][It seems to us that the following explanations of Stuart fairly and sufficiently meet the difficulties or “discrepancies” raised by the author: “The 1290 days are more specific than the phrase. ‘time, times and a half,’ in Dan_12:7, and also in Dan_7:25. The latter (‘time,’ etc.) is, as it were, a round number, three and a half first equalling the one half of the sacred number seven, and the fractional part equalling the half of one year. In such a case minute exactness of course is not to be expected. But the thirty additional days here (over 1200 days=forty-two months=three and a half years) are doubtless designed as an exact account of time during which the detestable (desolating) abomination continued in the temple. The terminus a quo is the time when Antiochus first removed the daily sacrifice, which probably was near the end of May or at the beginning of June in B.C. 168. Judas Maccabseus removed this שִׁקּוּץ, and purified the temple, Dec. 25th of B.C 165, making the time in question, i.e., three and a half years, as nearly as history will enable us to compute it. There can hardly be room for doubt that the statement in our text is minutely correct. The work of Judas there is the terminus ad quem of the period in question.”]
[26][The author is far too positive concerning the irreconcilability of this period with the death of Antiochus, as the following computation by Stuart will suffice to show: “It appears from 9:40–44 above, that Antiochus made another and final invasion of Egypt, near the close of his life, after which he marched against Palestine. Mattathias and his sons, in the mean time, had been organizing the party of the pious, and Antiochus was exceedingly indignant at the efforts which they made and the success with which they were attended. In 1Ma_2:26-37, we have an account of the situation of Antoeuus while in the ‘glorious land.’ His treasury was empty. He had already robbed the temple of all which it contained that was of any value, and he was necessitated to look to another quarter. He left half of his army, therefore, with Lysias, one of his favorite officers, and passed over the Euphrates in order to rifle the countries of the East. First he went through and subdued Armenia (τὰς ἐτάνω χώρας, 12:37), and then turned off to rob the temple at Elymais, where he met with disgrace, and finally with death. Not long after the departure of Antiochus, Lysias began the contest in Palestine in serious earnest; but Judas uniformly triumphed in all his encounters; and so decisive was one of them over Lysias, that Judas proceeded to purify the temple and to restore its worship, 1Ma_4:36 seq. All this must have occupied some months; and the consecration of the temple took place the 25th of Dec. 165 B.C. Of course Antiochus had had sufficient time for his conquest in Armenia and for his advance to Elymais before the winter had far advanced. It was in early spring that he undertook the robbery of the temple in Elymais; after which, on his retreat, the news met him of total defeat in Palestine, and helped to increase the malady under which he was then laboring. In 1Ma_6:1 seq., is an account of the close of the life of Antiochus, and of his failure at Elymais. If we now count onward, from the consecration of the temple by Judas to the time when Antiochus deceased, we shall perceive at once that the period of 1335 days is in all probability the period of Antiochus, death. From the time that the daily burnt-offering was removed by Apollonius, at the command of Antiochus, to the time of the reconsecration, were 1290. From the same terminus a quo to the death of Antiochus were 1335 days, i.e., forty-five days more than is included in the preceding period. History has not anywhere recorded the precise day of Antiochus’ death; so that we cannot compare the passage before us with that. But we are certain as to the order of events, and as to the season of the year, as well as the year itself, in which the death of this king took place. Of the general accuracy there can be no doubt; and such are the chronological designations of this book that we may safely rely, in this case, on its minute accuracy.”]
[27]Cf. Dereser on the passage: “Many Israelites who lived during the persecution. … in rocky caverns, where the dead were bestowed, or who seemed to lie in the dust like a lifeless corpse, shall, so to speak, awake to renewed life through the goodness and power of God, and shall perform actions by which they shall live forever in history. On the other hand, the apostate Jews— —shall be branded with everlasting shame.”
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. For Michael see note Dan_10:13.
1. For Michael see note Dan_10:13.
At that time — This is, “in the time of the end,” so often referred to. (See Dan_7:26; Dan_8:25; Dan_11:35; Dan_11:40.) After the destruction of this arch enemy of the saints Daniel, now seemingly for the first time, gets a glimpse of another time of trouble before the final consummation of joy. (See notes Dan_11:45; compare Mat_24:21.) Michael is still Israel’s heavenly helper (Dan_10:21), which is in itself sufficient proof that ultimately Israel shall be delivered. The close connection between the historic affliction and the Messianic triumph is natural in all prophecies. Dr. Terry calls attention to the glorious picture, Isa_4:2-6, which immediately follows the ruin of Judah and Jerusalem and to the “magnificent prophecy” of the coming Messiah (Isaiah 11), which is connected as clearly as possible with the overthrow of the Assyrian invader (Isaiah 10), and adds, “In such visions of the future no note is made of times that may intervene between the catastrophe and the final triumph, but the two opposite pictures are made to stand out so conspicuously in their main features that all else is for the time lost sight of.”
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Every one that shall be found written in the book — This thought, of a book in which Jehovah has carefully inscribed all the names of the righteous, meets us several times in Scripture (Exo_32:32; Psa_69:28; Mal_3:16; Rev_13:8). It was probably also familiar to the Babylonians, as it was certainly to the Egyptians. Professor Jastrow has shown the close connection between the zag-muku Babylonian festival and that held on the Jewish New Year: “On this day, according to the popular Jewish tradition, God sits in judgment with a book before him in which he inscribed the fate of mankind.” So Marduk during the festival zag-muku (resh shatti) — exactly equivalent to the Jewish Rosh-hash-shana (New Year) — makes his decrees for the whole year while the gods stand solemnly about him (Religion of Babylonia, pp. 681, etc.).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Michael … the great prince] i.e. the patron-angel…
1. Michael … the great prince] i.e. the patron-angel of Israel (Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21).
stand up] as champion and defender (Dan_11:1; cf. Dan_10:13). Hitherto the power of the ‘prince’ of Greece has been unchecked: now Michael interposes, for his people’s final deliverance.
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standeth for] i.e. protects (Est_8:11; Est_9:16).
a time of trouble] The expression seems borrowed from Jer_30:7 (where also Israel is spoken of as ‘saved from it’).
such as never was since, &c.] cf. Exo_9:18; Exo_9:24, Joe_2:2, Mar_13:19 (|| Mat_24:21).
shall be delivered] The period of deliverance here spoken of is the same as the period of redemption described in Dan_7:18; Dan_7:26-27, Dan_9:24.
written in the book] viz. of life, the register of the living: in Psa_69:28 (cf. Psa_87:6, Exo_32:32) applied to the register of living members of the Theocratic community, which God is represented as keeping. Here, however, the expression is used, not of those living in the present life, but of those destined to share in the glorious life of the end; it is the register of the citizens of the Messianic kingdom’ (Hitz.), including both those who enter it while yet living, and those (Dan_12:2) who enter it after their resurrection. Cf. Isa_4:3, where those who are worthy to survive the approaching judgement are described as ‘written down unto life [i.e. a glorified, but still earthly life] in Jerusalem.’ The same figure occurs in Enoch xlvii. 3 (‘the books of the living were opened before Him’), cviii. 3 (the names of the wicked ‘will be blotted out of the book of life, and out of the books of the holy ones’); and, applied in a Christian sense, in Php_4:3, Rev_3:5; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_20:12; Rev_20:15; Rev_21:27; cf. Luk_10:20, Heb_12:23, Enoch civ. 1 (‘your names are written before the glory of the Great One’).
Dan_12:1-3. There should be no break here: Dan_12:1-4 forms the concluding part of the angel’s revelation to Daniel; and what is described in Dan_12:1-3 forms the immediate sequel of the fall of Antiochus. The overthrow of the world-power is pictured by the author as accompanied by a season of trial—perhaps political convulsions—out of which, however, the faithful among God’s people are delivered; a resurrection of Israelites follows; and the age of bliss then begins for the righteous.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) At that time—i.e., in the times spoken of…
XII.
(1) At that time—i.e., in the times spoken of in Dan_11:45, previous to the overthrow of the king. During the tribulation which precedes his overthrow, Michael (see Dan_10:13) comes to stand up in aid of the people.
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A time of trouble.—This is the tribulation spoken of in Matt. in Mat_24:21-22, which follows, as it does in the Book of Daniel, the wars, rumours of wars, and uprisings of sundry nations. (See Mat_24:6-7.) It should be observed that the mere presence of Michael does not avert the times of trouble. He helps God’s people during the time of their trouble. On the mode in which the intensity of the tribulation is described, comp. Jer_30:7.
Written in the book.—Comp. Dan_7:10; Php_4:3; and see Note on Exo_32:32.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-13. THE LAST THINGS.
Vers. 1-13. THE LAST THINGS.
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standsth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. The rendering of the Septuagint is "And unto that place shall come Michael the archangel, who standeth over (ejpi) the children of thy people; that day shall be a day of affliction, such as was not from the day when they were presumably the Jews as a nation till that day, and in that day every people shall be exalted whose name is found written in the book," reading lko instead of Alko Theodotion"s rendering is, "In that time shall stand up Michael, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people, and it shall be a time of affliction such as there has not been since there was a nation upon the earth till that time: in that time shall thy people be saved, every one who is written in the book." The Peshitta rendering is, "At that time shall stand up Michael, the great angel who is overseer over the children of thy people, and it shall be a time of affliction such as has not been from the days of eternity; there shall be delivered of the children of thy people every one who is found written in the book." The rendering of the Vulgate is in close agreement with the Massoretic text. The difference in the first clause between the text of the Septuagint and that represented by the Massoretic text and that of the versions which follow it is of importance. It is hardly possible to suggest any Hebrew word for the place which can have been suggested by te, the word used here for "time." Both versions of the clause look like attempts to supply a link of connection which was awanting in the text before them. This supports our idea that the eleventh chapter is mainly an interpolation. It would seem that the Septuagint translator had before him a text having some derivative possibly of lls, perhaps in the passive of the pilpel, which has no extant example. And at that time. The connection would naturally imply the time of the destruction of the oppressor the king of the south. When he was cut off "without a helper" would be a time one would expect of joy, not of affliction. It may refer to the coming of the oppressor from Egypt with "great rage." If that produced the great affliction, what is the result of Michael"s standing up? It seems as if the connection here were hopelessly broken; some dislocation has occurred. Michael the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. (see Dan_10:21) "Thy people," this pronominal suffix only occurs once in the previous chapter, in the fourteenth verse, in a clause that does not harmonize with the context a clause that we think is a portion of the missing vision of Daniel. Shall stand up. This, taken in connection with his function, means he shall come for the help of Israel. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation. This is certainly not what might be expected to result from Michael arising for the deliverance of the people of God. It certainly may be intended to explain the fact that Michael does "stand up." But in the succeeding verses we have no account of special deliverance being given to Israel. The natural meaning of this would be that from the time that Israel began to be a nation there had not been such affliction. It might mean that never since there were nations had there been such a persecution. Father of these interpretations would be true. Never in the history of Israel had there been such a persecution, because the attempt to force the people to worship Jupiter was met by a far fiercer resistance than that which met Jezebel"s attempt to make Israel worshippers of Baal. The people were not then so permeated with love and honour to Jehovah as they were now. Further, there was more kindred between Baal-worship and that of Jehovah originally than between the latter and the worship of Jupiter. Baal means simply" Lord," and Jehovah seems to have been worshipped under that title. (Hos_2:16) A collateral proof of this is the fact that Saul named one of his sons after "Baal Eshbaal (equivalent to Ishbosheth), 1Ch_8:3:3; and Jonathan also named his son from Baal Meribaal (equivalent to Mephibesheth) 1Ch_8:34. The plea might thus be advanced that Baal-worship was a revival of an ancient cult. Hence the persecution, severe as it was, would not be so severe as tinder Antiochus. Yet, again, the Greek intellect, keen and polished as it was, could persecute in a way more thorough and complete. If fiercer persecution for religious views could not have been at any earlier time in Jewish history, in no other country would there have been any persecution at all, because there would have been no resist-ante to the will of the monarch. Our Lord, in Mat_24:21, has this passage in mind, and uses terms borrowed from it to describe the sufferings to be endured by the Jews at the hands of the Romans. when Jerusalem shall be besieged and taken. It is to be observed that while in Daniel the comparison is only with the past, in Matthew there is added a reference to the future, "No, nor ever shall be." Nothing, then, shall equal the appalling horrors of the siege and sack of Jerusalem. And at that time thy people shall be delivered. The mere fact of deliverance is mentioned, but the nature of the deliverance is not indicated there; cessation of persecution would not be deliverance, for only Israel was persecuted. The application of the phrases of our Lord have a totally different reference the Jews perished, the Christians were delivered. There is here another evidence of dislocation. Every one that shall be found written in the book. There seems to be a faint reminiscence of this in Php_4:3, and a clearer in Rev_13:8. Although "books" is here referred to, and referred to also in Dan_10:21, yet the "books" are different. The "book" in the tenth chapter contains presumably an account beforehand of all that is to happen. This book is, so to speak, a register of the names of those who should stand through the fiery trial that was to try them and maintain their faithfulness. It is to be noted that the Septuagint makes this refer not to individuals, but to nations whose names shall be found written in the book. There seems nothing to justify such a reading.
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HOMILIES BY H.T. ROBJOHNS Vers. 1-3.
The shining of the clear and the converting.
they that be wise shall shine" etc. (ver. 3). Here are two types of humanity and two destinies. There is a likeness both in the types and in the destinies, such as we might expect from the parallelism of the text; at the same time, there are differences. The one type is in advance of the other; so is the Divine recognition in the one case as against the preceding. In the one case we have an attribute of soul, in the other an activity. The first is followed by a radiance like that of the open sky; the second, by a brilliance like to that of the stars.
I THE CLEAR. Turn to the Hebrew, and it will soon be seen that the essential idea in the word translated "wise" is that of a clear eye with a clear outlook. Cleave to this idea, and let it determine our description of the character here set before us. In such a character:
1. The soul is clear. Not absolutely here on earth, but relatively in contrast with the former state. Transparent. Pure. (Mat_5:8) No moral taint of such a kind as to destroy the vision of spiritual and eternal things. (Joh_8:12)
1. The eye is clear.
2. The atmosphere is clear. (Eph_5:8)
3. The objects of choice are clear. In time; in eternity.
4. The choice of means is clear. All the present is subjected to the future. Herein lies ever true wisdom.
II THEIR SHINING. Perhaps the text refers mainly to the shining of immortality. We may bear in mind that the shining of the clear-seeing saint of the saint who is indeed a seer is not a question of time or place, of aeons or worlds, but one of character. The shining will then be here as well as there. How, then, does the saint shine? Of what sort is the radiance of the open day-sky? The light of the sky is:
1. Brilliant. No light in all the landscape can exceed the brilliance of the sky. No light in all the world of intelligence and morals can exceed that of saintliness.
2. Soft. No element of pain in it.
3. Diffused.
4. Victorious. Clouds may dim the face of the sky. So calumnies, misunderstandings, imperfections, failings, may obscure character. But the light shines through the cloud, and continues after the cloud has passed away.
5. Ministering. The sky is like an angel of God in the sweetness and beauty of its service. What relief to the sick and to the nursing, who out of their lattices watch for the morning! What cheer to the strong! What health! Sunlight is health. The sun arises with "healing in his wings." So the "Sun of Righteousness." So they that are like him. What power to work! The sky holds, as it were, the candle to every worker on earth. How we value dying daylight! So wistfully watch we the expiring radiance of the saints we love.
6. Borrowed. Not its own, but the sun"s. So the light of the saints is not theirs, but God"s.
III THE CONVERTING. In order to preach truly and intelligently from this passage, the following points should be observed: "They that turn to righteousness" is the translation of a single word in Hebrew a verb, of the hiphil conjugation, participial form, plural number, construct case. The verb means "to be right or righteous;" in the hiphil conjugation, "to make one right or righteous." Here, then, we have the activity of the saint, going forth in this form of instrumentally making men righteous, implying a turning away from wickedness, and doing this in the case of "many." Turning the sinner to God, so as to be "justified by his grace," would not exhaust the meaning; it goes beyond that, to the securing at least the elements of personal righteousness in him. How can we instrumentally convert?
1. By luminosity of life.
2. By word from the lip. Not necessarily a pulpit-word or a class-word, but a friendly word, and that of the simplest kind.
3. By unconscious co-operation with others. Henry Martyn never knew that he was the means of converting a single soul; but he translated the Bible into Persian, and prepared the way for others. "They that sow, and they that reap, shall rejoice together.
4. By prayer.
5. By gifts of money sustaining the labours of others. (Some suggestions and illustrations of a useful character may, perhaps, be found in a characteristic sermon by Dr. Talmage on the text, in the first series, published by Nicholson and Sons, Wakefield.)
IV THEIR BRILLIANCE. "As the stars for ever and ever." Here we have some of the ideas we had before, but with variations, additions, and enlargements. Without becoming pedantic, we make use legitimately of the richer knowledge astronomical of our time. In the destiny of the active aggressive worker we have:
1. An intense brilliance. Strictly, daylight is more brilliant than the light of stars; for it obscures it by day, or rather outshines it. But this would not be the popular impression, and on that this Bible-text is based.
2. A diversity of splendour. "One star differeth," etc. Not only the most eminent workers are to shine, but others in their proportion and degree.
3. A distinguishing separateness. Think of the distinctive glory of each worker. Here it is not difference of degree, but of type and kind; e.g. Martin Luther, George Fox, Madame Guyon, Elizabeth Fry, etc.
4. Yet oft a clustered glory. In appearance the stars congregate in clusters; in actuality are marshalled into systems. The fellowships of earth, of heaven. A unity of power.
5. A growing radiance with nearness of view. distance lends enchantment to the view" has no application here. The stars are suns whose magnificence dawns with our approach. So with the glorified and consecrated in the Church.
1. A ministration of light and heat and life.
2. A subservient splendour.
For ever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is Divine.
3. A brilliance unlike that of the stars. Their light does now oft go out. The light of all may fade and die. But these saintly workers shine on "for ever and ever.
Many motives to Christian service may be urged; but here behold its supreme attractiveness! Contrast with this that other destiny (ver. 2), "Shame and everlasting contempt. R.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Vers. 1-4.
Prophetic events in perspective.
Nature is full of types. The leaf is type of the tree. The dawn is a type of the resurrection. The same law that moulds the dew-drop moulded the earth. History likewise is full of types. The banishment from Eden is a type of exclusion from heaven. The redemption of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage is a type of the redemption of the race by Jesus Christ. Both prosperous and adverse events in human history serve as types. This is the key to the present paragraph in Daniel.
I RIGOROUS TRIALS FOR ISRAEL APPEAR IN THE VISTA OF THE FUTURE. Not only are great deliverances pre-announced, but great disasters also. It is thought by some persons that it is of no advantage to discern the approach of trial. But to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Every earthly battle is a symbol of the decisive battle between good and evil between Christ and Satan. The time of trouble which the angel predicted was a fitting type of the time of trouble which Jesus Christ predicted, viz. the overthrow of Jerusalem. Of each it might truly be said, as each arose to view, "it was a time of trouble," such as had not hitherto been known.
II SEVERE TRIALS BRING TO LIGHT SUPERIOR SOURCES OF HELP. Had it not been for the captivity and oppression of Israel, Daniel would not have fasted and prayed, and if he had not made his tearful appeal to God, he would not have known of the distinguished beings who were enlisted in Israel"s defence. When raised to the eternal home, we shall learn that trials had served on earth our highest good. They drove us near to God. They brought the revelation of his available help. Greater are our champions (if we are friends of truth) than all our foes. "The great Prince standeth for us." Here is type again. Even the Fail shall result in greater elevation. Recovered holiness is a richer acquisition than unmolested innocence.
III EVERY ACT OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE POINTS ONWARD TO OUR RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. There is no room for question that the awakening and reappearance of the dead, referred to by the angel, was a resurrection of social and national life under Judas Maccabaeus. A new wave of life was to pass over the people. Those who had been long repressed, trodden in the dust, who had hidden in holes and dens for very life, then reappeared. In very similar language Ezekiel predicted that God would "bring his people out of their graves, and would lead them to their own land." Yet this revival of life under the Maccabaean princes was type of a better resurrection. The language spoken to Daniel had both a near and a remote application. In its fullest signification it will be verified only in the great resurrection at the last day.
IV RESURRECTION WILL SERVE TO MANIFEST CONTRASTS OF CHARACTER. A sudden accession of prosperity to a man is a good test of his worth or his worthlessness. With our present grossly material natures, it is comparatively easy to dissemble motives, feelings, and intentions before our fellow-men. But it is possible that the resurrection-body will be refined and transparent, so that angels and men may be able to see us through and through. What an incentive have we here to acquire sterling excellence of character! By-and-by no secrets will be permitted: will this be to us a joy or a grief? All varieties of character will be reduced to two. Minor distractions will be obliterated in view of the great distinction. Honour will be life; shame will be death.
V DISTINCTIONS OF CHARACTER WILL MEET WITH DISTINCTIVE DESTINIES. For the present the coming destinies of men are, in part, concealed. But we may be quite sure that eventually every man will, like Judas, "go to his own place." In all God"s arrangements there is admirable and exquisite fitness, and it shall be seen at last that character will gravitate to its proper destination. Those among the sons of men who are truly wise who love and pursue wisdom shall gradually gain a clearness and brightness of soul. The hidden excellence shall be at length fully manifested; "they shall shine" as the clear lustre of the eastern sky. Wisdom, that has matured and ripened into benevolence, shall shine as the "stars," and that perpetually.
VI LARGER UNFOLDINGS OF THE TRUTH ARE RESERVED FOE THE FUTURE, In each succeeding age men have still to say, "We know in part." It is, without question, best for us here that revelation should be gradual, and that attainments of knowledge should be secured by successive steps. It would be lavish waste (such as we see nowhere in God"s universe) if God should reveal at once to men all that he intends to make known on earth. The thing would be impossible. There must be an eye to perceive, as well as objects to be presented. We should be blinded with the excess of light. God reveals himself and his redemption through human as well as through angelic agencies. Though every prophet must be in advance of his contemporaries, in order to be a prophet; still he must not be greatly in advance. The stream of revelation must be stayed for a time; "the book must be closed and sealed." Time is allowed to reduce known truth to practical advantage. In later times, teachers shall be multiplied, and truth, unfettered, shall spread through wider and wider circles. "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability" and the glory of future ages. D.
HOMILIES BY H.T. ROBJOHNS Dan_12:1.
The roll of the universal Church.
people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the. (Dan_12:1) Two remarks here seem necessary on the part of the writer of this set of homilies.
1. That, deeply interesting as may be the eleventh chapter considered asprophecy, and so demanding minute historical exposition, there does not seem to be much admitting of strictly homiletical treatment. The impression of others may be different; but that is our view; and we act upon it by advancing to the twelfth chapter.
2. That the homilies immediately following are founded upon the viewexpressed by Keil, that the closing verses of the eleventh chapter refer to "the end of the present world-period," not to Antiochus Epiphanes, but to the final enemy of the people of God, the antichrist; and further, that the first three verses of the twelfth chapter treat of "the final deliverance of Israel from the last tribulation." In other words, that the prophecies of Daniel close by projecting themselves on into the closing scenes of the history of our world. The first verse declares that the close, of earth"s history shall be a time of unparalleled trouble; that the activity of Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, shall then be prominent; that there shall be deliverance for all the true Israel of God, viz. of those whose names are written in "the book. " Of that book we treat; but seeking light upon it from the later revelations of God. By "the book" we understand the register of the redeemed of the Lord the heavenly Church book the roll of the one universal Church.
I THE BOOK. The language is symbolic. There is in heaven something which may well be represented by a book. Books play no mean part in Scripture symbolism. To understand the passages we must remember that ancient books were, for the most part, written on parchment, rolled on cylinders, and usually the writing was on one side only. In Rev_5:1 the book is the crowded roll of the providential counsels. A book sealed is one whose contents are secret. To eat a book is spiritually to assimilate its contents (Rev_10:9, Rev_10:10; Jer_15:16) A book folded up" stands for law repealed, or teaching of no further use. To receive" a book is to enter on new dignity. (Rev_5:7) Christ enters on the functions of mediatorial providential King.
II THE TITLE. "The book of life". (Rev_21:27)
1. What it is not. Not what is called the volume of the Divine decrees." Rev_3:5 settles that.
2. What it is. One of the two to be produced at the last judgment. (see Rev_20:11-13) Look at them separately.
(1) The books of the deeds of men. The judgment of the great day will be according to the deeds," etc.. (2Co_5:10) But how does this comport with the evangelical doctrine that believers are saved and unbelievers lost? (Joh_3:14-19)
(a) As to the unbeliever. His deeds are the evidence of unbelief.
(b) The believer.
(a) Deeds, again, are evidence of faith.
(b) Deeds determine place in glory.
(2) The book of life. A book of names only, of the living spiritually; i.e. of the saved. Alford says, "Those books and the book of life bear independent witness to the fact of men being or not being among the saved; the one by inference from the works recorded, the other by inscription or non-inscription in the list.
3. The origin of the figure. Whence? Various answers, but all suggestive. The carefully kept list of priests? of citizens? of wrestlers in the great Greek agony? the monster roll of soldiers in the Roman army? Believers ought to be all there priests, etc. Think, then: In the book every believer"s name, not in the world"s order, but in the order of coming into the Church universal. It is the family register of our Father in heaven. What if we could read it? The names clearly written! No mistake! What disclosures l Names there; names not there! No impeachment of the record. No doubtful name. Are our names there?
III THE OWNER. "The Lamb"s book of life." Why?
1. The book is the register of his property. His own. " Blood-bought. His ransomed, servants, subjects, soldiers, friends, younger brethren.
2. He enters the names. How do we know? None beside has the ability or qualification. The writer must be everywhere, see all, know all. What wise discrimination needed too! tender sympathy! instant delicate recognition of the trust of a soul going out to him!
3. As Guardian, he keeps the book. The book, ever open, lies in the shadow of the protection of Christ"s throne. (Joh_10:28)
IV THE NAMES.
1. The names ever there. Of those "who go out no more for ever.
1. The blotted names. (Rev_22:19 Rev_3:5) Surely no idle threats! (Heb_10:29)
2. Tile BLANK SPACES. There are places for coming names. Millions of names have been filled in; and yet there is room." The blank space for your name waits your decision., Some names never will be there. (Joh_5:40) What then? Rev_20:15: figurative language? Yes. But figure must be less ever than the reality. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Every one that shall be found written in the…
Dan_12:1
Every one that shall be found written in the book.
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Divine Registration, the Pledge of Deliverance in Times of Trouble
The whole history of the Church of God bears one unbroken testimony to the fact that her distinction from the world is essential to her, real prosperity; and the more tenaciously that distinction has been maintained the more conspicuous has been her glory, and the more her experimental joys have abounded. Four things in the text.
I. A DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE. Two distinct families are uniformly set forth in the sacred oracles, from the very opening to the closing of the book of God. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Inquire into the origin and descent of the family of God, the distinguished people. Their origin is in the eternal counsel. They were chosen in Christ as their covenant head. Note some of the family peculiarities of this distinguished people, especially that royal dignity which characterises them all. The Christian is born of God, with a nature capable of enjoying God.
II. THE REGISTER OF DANIELS FAMILY. They are said to be written in a book. The book of covenant decrees, entitled The Lambs Book of Life.
Every child of God, every heir of glory, is found written in that book, as an object of everlasting life. Daniels people are like himself in four particulars
1. As the children of a covenant head, the true circumcision.
2. As praying souls.
3. As characterised by integrity.
4. As in high favour with God.
III. THE ORDEALS THROUGH WHICH THIS PEOPLE HAVE TO PASS. They are a tried people--in family experience and outward persecutions. (Joseph Irons.)
Dan_12:1-13
And at that time shall Michael stand up.
The Great Consummation
It is a little unfortunate that this chapter has been severed from what immediately precedes it. Here we learn:
1. That the time of the Antichrist will be a time of unexampled distress. The trouble will be more or less upon all people then living upon the earth.
2. The time of the Antichrist is the time when Michael, the great prince over the Children of the prophets people, shall stand up in their behalf. Some think this is the Lord Jesus himself.
3. The time of the Antichrist is also a time of blessed resurrection.
4. Then shall men receive their eternal rewards. (Joseph A. Seiss, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain THE twelfth chapter of the Book of Daniel serves…
THE EPILOGUE
(Dan_12:1-13)
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THE twelfth chapter of the Book of Daniel serves as a general epilogue to the Book, and is as little free from difficulties in the interpretation of the details as are the other apocalyptic chapters.
The keynote, however, to their right understanding must be given in the words "At that time," with which the first verse opens. The words can only mean "the time" spoken of at the end of the last chapter, the days of that final effort of Antiochus against the holy people which ended in his miserable death.
"At that time," then- i.e., about the year B.C. 163-the guardian archangel of Israel, "Michael, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people," shall stand up for their deliverance.
But this deliverance should resemble many similar crises in its general characteristics. It should not be immediate. On the contrary, it should be preceded by days of unparalleled disorder and catastrophe-"a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time." We may, for instance, compare with this the similar prophecy of Jeremiah: {Jer_30:4-11}
"And these are the words which the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacobs trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will burst thy bonds Therefore fear thou not, O Jacob, My servant, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel For I am with thee. saith the Lord, to save thee. For I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee with judgment, and will in nowise leave thee unpunished."
The general conception is so common as even to have found expression in proverbs, -such as, "The night is darkest just before the dawn"; and, "When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes." Some shadow of similar individual and historic experiences is found also among the Greek and Romans. In the lines of Horace, -
"Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus Intersit."
We find the same expectation in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, (90:16) and we find it reflected in the Revelation of St. John, {Rev_16:14; Rev_19:19} where he describes the devil as let loose and the powers of evil as gathering themselves together for the great final battle of Armageddon before the eternal triumph of the Lamb and of His saints. In Rabbinic literature there was a fixed anticipation that the coming of the Messiah must inevitably be preceded by "pangs" or "birth-throes," of which they spoke. {Comp. Mat_24:6-7; Mat_24:21-22}
These views may partly have been founded on individual and national experience, but they were doubtless deepened by the vision of Zechariah (chapter 14).
"Behold, a day, of the Lord cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the people shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be light, but cold and ice but it shall be one day that is known unto the Lord, not day and not night: but it shall come to pass that at evening time there shall be light.". {Zec_14:1-7}
The anticipation of the saintly writer in the days of the early Maccabean uprising, while all the visible issues were still uncertain, and hopes as yet unaccomplished could only be read by the eyes of faith, were doubtless of a similar character. When he wrote Antiochus was already concentrating his powers to advance with the utmost wrath and fury against the Holy City. Humanly speaking, it was certain that the holy people could oppose no adequate resistance to his overwhelming forces, in which he would doubtless be able to enlist contingents from many allied nations. What could ensue but immeasurable calamity to the great majority? Michael indeed, their prince, should do his utmost for them; but it would not be in his power to avert the misery which should fall on the nation generally.
Nevertheless, they should not be given up to utter or to final destruction. As in the days of the Assyrians the name Shear-jashub, which Isaiah gave to one of his young sons, was a sign that "a remnant should be left," so now the seer is assured that, "thy people shall be delivered"-at any rate "every one that shall be found written in the book."
"Written in the book"-for all true Israelites had ever believed that a book of record, a book of remembrance, lies ever open before the throne of God, in which are inscribed the names of Gods faithful ones; as well as that awful book in which are written the evil deeds of men. Thus in Exodus {Exo_32:33} we read, "Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book," which tells us of the records against the guilty. In Psa_69:28 we read, "Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous." That book of the righteous is specially mentioned by Malachi: "Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another: and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and called upon His Name.". {Mal_3:16} And St. John refers to these books at the close of the Apocalypse: "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works And if any one was not found written in the book of life, he was cast in the lake of fire."
In the next verse the seer is told that "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting abhorrence."
It is easy to glide with insincere confidence over the difficulties of this verse, but they are many.
We should naturally connect it with what goes before as a reference to "that time"; and if so, it would seem as though-perhaps with reminiscences of the concluding prophecy of Isaiah-the writer contemplated the end of all things and the final resurrection. If so, we have here another instance to be added to the many in which this prophetic vision of the future passed from an immediate horizon to another infinitely distant. And if that be the correct interpretation, this is the earliest trace in Scripture of the doctrine of individual immortality. Of that doctrine there was no full knowledge-there were only dim prognostications or splendid hopes-until in the fulness of the times Christ brought life and immortality to light. For instance, the passage here seems to be doubly limited. It does not refer to mankind in general, but only to members of the chosen people; and it is not said that all men shall rise again and receive according to their works, but only that "many" shall rise to receive the reward of true life, while others shall live indeed, but only in everlasting shame. To them that be wise-to "the teacher," and to those that turn the many to "righteousness"-there is a further promise of glory. They "shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever." There is here, perhaps, a reminiscence of Pro_4:18-19, which tells us that the way of the wicked is as darkness, whereas the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Our Lord uses a similar metaphor in his explanation of the Parable of the Tares: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." We find it once again in the last verse of the Epistle of St. James: "Let him know, that he who hath converted a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." But there is a further indication that the writer expected this final consummation to take place immediately after the troubles of the Antiochian assault; for he describes the angel Gabriel as bidding Daniel "to seal the Book even to the time of the end." Now as it is clear that the Book was, on any hypothesis, meant for the special consolation of the persecuted Jews under the cruel sway of the Seleucid King, and that then first could the Book be understood, the writer evidently looked for the fulfilment of his last prophecies at the termination of these troubles. This meaning is a little obscured by the rendering, " many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Ewald, Maurer, and Hitzig take the verse, which literally implies movement hither and thither, in the sense, "many shall peruse the Book." Mr. Bevan, however, from a consideration of the Septuagint Version of the words, "and knowledge shall be increased" - for which they read, "and the land be filled with injustice"-thinks that the original rendering would be represented by, "many shall rush hither and thither, and many shall be the calamities." In other words, "the revelation must remain concealed, because there is to ensue a long period of commotion and distress." If we have been convinced by the concurrence of many irresistible arguments that the Book of Daniel is the product of the epoch which it most minutely describes, we can only see in this verse a part of the literary form which the Book necessarily assumed as the vehicle for its lofty and encouraging messages.
The angel here ceases to speak, and Daniel, looking round him, becomes aware of the presence of two other celestial beings, one of whom stood on either bank of the river. "And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was above the waters of the river, How long to the end of these wonders?" There is a certain grandeur in the vagueness of description, but the speaker seems to be one of the two angels standing on either "lip" of the Tigris. "The man clothed in linen," who is hovering in the air above the waters of the river, is the same being who in Dan_8:16 wears "the appearance of a man," and calls "from between the banks of Ulai" to Gabriel that he is to make Daniel understand the vision. He is also, doubtless, the "one man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz, his body like the beryl, his face as flashing lightning, his eyes as burning torches, and his voice like the deep murmur of a multitude," who strikes such terror into Daniel and his comrades in the vision of Dan_10:5-6; -and though all is left uncertain, "the great prince Michael" may perhaps be intended.
The question how long these marvels were to last, and at what period the promised deliverance should be accomplished, was one which would naturally have the intensest interest to those Jews who-in the agonies of the Antiochian persecution and at the beginning of the "little help" caused by the Maccabean uprising-read for the first time the fearful yet consolatory and inspiring pages of this new apocalypse. The answer is uttered with the most solemn emphasis. The Vision of the priest-like and gold-girded angel, as he hovers above the river-flood, "held up both his hands to heaven," and swears by Him that liveth for ever and ever that the continuance of the affliction shall be "for a time, times, and a half." So Abraham, to emphasise his refusal of any gain from the King of Sodom, says that he has "lifted up his hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, that he would not take from a thread to a shoe-latchet." And in Exo_6:8, when Jehovah says "I did swear," the expression means literally, "I lifted up My hand." It is the natural attitude of calling God to witness; and in Rev_10:5-6, with a reminiscence of this passage, the angel is described as standing on the sea, and lifting his right hand to heaven to swear a mighty oath that there should be no longer delay.
The "time, two times, and half a time" of course means three years and a half, as in Dan_7:25. There can be little doubt that their commencement is the terminus a quo which is expressly mentioned in Dan_12:11 : "the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away." We have already had occasion to see that three years, with a margin which seems to have been variously computed, does roughly correspond to the continuance of that total desecration of the Temple, and extinction of the most characteristic rites of Judaism, which preceded the death of Antiochus and the triumph of the national cause.
Unhappily the reading, rendering, and interpretation of the next clause of the angels oath are obscure and uncertain. It is rendered in the R.V, "and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." As to the exact translation many scholars differ. Von Lengerke translates it, "and when the scattering of a part of the holy people should come to an end, all this should be ended." The Septuagint Version is wholly unintelligible. Mr. Bevan suggests an alteration of the text which would imply that, "when the power of the shatterer of the holy people [i.e., Antiochus] should come to an end, all these things should be ended." This no doubt would not only give a very clear sense, but also one which would be identical with the prophecy of Dan_7:25, that "they [the times and the law] shall be given unto his hand until a time and times and half a time." But if we stop short at the desperate and uncertain expedient of correcting the original Hebrew, we can only regard the words as implying (in the rendering of our A.V and R.V) that the persecution and suppression of Israel should proceed to their extremest limit, before the woe was ended; and of this we have already been assured.
The writer, in the person of Daniel, is perplexed by the angels oath, and yearns for further enlightenment and certitude. He makes an appeal to the vision with the question, "O my lord, what shall be the issue [or, latter end] of these things?" In answer he is simply bidden to go his way- i.e., to be at peace, and leave all these events to God, since the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end. In other words, the Daniel of the Persian Court could not possibly have attached any sort of definite meaning to minutely detailed predictions affecting the existence of empires which would not so much as emerge on the horizon till centuries after his death. These later visions could only be apprehended by the contemporaries of the events which they shadowed forth.
"Many," continued the angel, "shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; the teachers shall understand."
The verse describes the deep divisions which should be cleft among the Jews by the intrigues and persecutions of Antiochus. Many would cling to their ancient and sacred institutions, and purified by pain, purged from all dross of worldliness and hypocrisy in the fires of affliction, like gold in the furnace, would form the new parties of the Chasidim and the Anavim, "the pious" and "the poor." They would be such men as the good high priest Onias, Mattathias of Modin and his glorious sons, the scribe Eleazar, and the seven dauntless martyrs, sons of the holy woman who unflinchingly watched their agonies and encouraged them to die rather than to apostatise. But the wicked would continue to be void of all understanding, and would go on still in their wickedness, like Jason and Menelaus, the renegade usurpers of the high-priesthood. These and the whole Hellenising party among the Jews, for the sake of gain, plunged into heathen practices, made abominable offerings to gods which were no gods, and in order to take part in the naked contests of the Greek gymnasium which they had set up in Jerusalem, deliberately attempted to obliterate the seal of circumcision which was the covenant pledge of their national consecration to the Jehovah of their fathers.
"And from the time that the continual burnt offering shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days."
If we suppose the year to consist of twelve months of thirty days, then (with the insertion of one intercalary month of thirty days) twelve hundred and ninety days is exactly three and a half years. We are, however, faced by the difficulty that the time from the desecration of the Temple till its reconsecration by Judas Maccabaeus seems to have been exactly three years; and if that view be founded on correct chronology we can give no exact interpretation of the very specific date here furnished.
Our difficulties are increased by the next clause: "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."
All that we can conjecture from this is that, at the close of twelve hundred and ninety days, by the writers reckoning from the cessation of the daily burnt offering, and the erection of the heathen abomination which drove all faithful Jews from the Temple, up to the date of some marked deliverance, would be three and a half years, but that this deliverance would be less complete and beatific than another and later deliverance which would not occur till forty-five days later.
Reams of conjecture and dubious history and imaginative chronology have been expended upon the effort to give any interpretation of these precise data which can pretend to the dignity of firm or scientific exegesis. Some, for instance, like Keil, regard the numbers as symbolical, which is equivalent to the admission that they have little or no bearing on literal history; others suppose that they are conjectural, having been penned before the actual termination of the Seleucid troubles. Others regard them as only intended to represent round numbers. Others again attempt to give them historic accuracy by various manipulations of the dates and events in and after the reign of Antiochus. Others relegate the entire vision to periods separated from the Maccabean age by hundreds of years, or even into the remotest future. And none of these commentators, by their researches and combinations, have succeeded in establishing the smallest approach to conviction in the minds of those who take the other views. There can be little doubt that to the writer and his readers the passage pointed either to very confident expectations or very well-understood realities; but for us the exact clue to the meaning is lost. All that can be said is that we should probably understand the dates better if our knowledge of the history of B.C. 165-164 was more complete. We are forced to content ourselves with their general significance. It is easy to record and to multiply elaborate guesses, and to deceive ourselves with the merest pretence and semblance of certainty. For reverent and severely honest inquiries it seems safer and wiser to study and profit by the great lessons and examples clearly set before us in the Book of Daniel, but, as regards many of its unsolved difficulties, to obey the wise exhortation of the Rabbis, -
"Learn to say, I do not know."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain SECT. XLIV.—THE GREAT TRIBULATION. (Chap. Dan_12:1.)
HOMILETICS
SECT. XLIV.—THE GREAT TRIBULATION. (Chap. Dan_12:1.)
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The angel continues his discourse regarding the things that should befall Daniel’s people in the last days. He had shown him the fall of their last great adversary in the “glorious holy mountain” where, in his pride and indignation against the people of God, he had planted the tabernacles of his palace. He now describes what should be the experience of men in general at that period, but with a special reference to Daniel’s own people. “There shall be a time of trouble, such as there never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” To this, the great tribulation, we now turn our attention. The Lord the Spirit give light!
That there should be such a time of trouble previous to the period of lasting peace and prosperity to Israel and the world, Daniel might have already read in the sacred books which he possessed. The song of Moses in the law had concluded with intimations of such a time (Deu_32:34-43). Isaiah had been led more than once to enlarge upon it, when foretelling the year of the Lord’s redeemed. It was with reference to it that the Lord exhorts His people when He says: “Come, My people, enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, and hide thee for a little season, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity; and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain” (Isa_26:20-21). In reference to the same period the prophet had asked, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments, from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength?” The answer is given by the Redeemer and Deliverer of His people, “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” The prophet asks again, “Wherefore art thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat?” To which the answer is returned, “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment,”—the blood here that of his enemies, not His own. “For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come” (Isa_63:1-4). That day of vengeance was to follow “the acceptable year of the Lord;” and hence His object was only to declare the latter when, reading in the synagogue at Nazareth from Isa_61:1-2, Jesus stopped at the words, “the day of vengeance of our God.” Zephaniah had also predicted the same time of trouble as ushering in the glory of the future age. “For My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent” (Zep_3:8-9). Jeremiah had written of the same period of tribulation, adding, “It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer_30:7). Ezekiel, about half a century before this last vision of Daniel, had been inspired to predict the same time of trouble in the following sublime and terrific language:—“Speak to every feathered fowl and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to the sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, and of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. And I will set My glory among the nations, and the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I My face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies; so fell they all by the sword. According to their uncleanness, and according to their transgressions, have I done unto them, and hid My face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for My holy name” (Eze_39:17-25). This was, doubtless, the same tribulation of which Jesus forewarned His disciples when He said, “There shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to that time, no, nor ever shall be;” adding, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” This time of tribulation the Saviour, like the prophets before Him, connects with that of His people’s redemption, adding, according to Luke, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luk_21:28).
We may notice in connection with this time of trouble—
I. The time of it. The angel says, “At that time,” [340] i.e., when the last hostile power shall, as had just been mentioned, “go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many,” and shall “plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain,” there to meet with his end (chap. Dan_11:44-45). The last clause of the verse connects it with the time of returning mercy to the covenant people, when “all Israel shall be saved” (Rom_11:26); while the second verse connects it with the resurrection of the dead, both events being elsewhere connected with the Lord’s second appearing (Zec_12:10; Rev_1:7; Mat_24:39; Act_3:19-21, R.V.; 1Co_15:23; 1Th_4:15-17). So Jesus, as we have seen, connects the time of tribulation with that of His own coming “in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” From the events which are to follow it, however, it is obviously not to be confounded with the time of the general judgment. The fulfilment of the promises regarding Israel is to follow.
[340] “At that time.” Keil remarks that the expression points back to the “time of the end “(chap. Dan_11:40), the time when the final hostile and persecuting power rises up to subdue the whole world, and sets up his camp in the Holy Land, to destroy many in great anger, and totally to uproot them. He observes that the description of this oppression seems to be based upon Jer_30:7, the time of trouble being the climax which the hostile king shall bring upon Israel, and occurring with the expiry of the last or seventieth week (chap. Dan_9:26); while, with Kranichfeld, he identifies Israel’s deliverance out of it with the setting up of Messiah’s kingdom as described in chap. Dan_7:22-27. He agrees with Hävernick in opposing those who refer this verse to the period of persecution under Antiochus, on the ground that the statement regarding it is far too strong for such a period, while the promised deliverance of those “written in the book “does not accord with that Syrian oppression. Hävernick understands the “trouble” of the sufferings and oppressions which the people of Israel should endure at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, but which should be most fully realised only at the second coming of the Lord (Mat_24:21-22). Hofmann finds in this and the two following verses the prophecy of the final close of the history of nations, the time of the great tribulation at the termination of the present course of the world, the complete salvation of Israel in it, and the resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. Calvin interpreted the words of the increased troubles and heavier afflictions to be endured by the Church after the manifestation of Christ. Chrysostom, Grotius, and others understand them of the persecutions of Antiochus while his armies were still in Judea. Junius, with Calvin, applies them to the troubles of the Church in the times of the Gospel. Calovius limits them to the last times, in the “end of the days.” Brightman remarks that the tribulation cannot be applied to any trouble from Antiochus or the Romans, as after it no calamity is to be expected by the Jews, the suffering inflicted on them by those powers being insignificant compared with this misery in which, after sixteen, now eighteen, centuries, the Jews still lie buried. He considers the tribulation to have reference to the Jews, Daniel’s own people, of whom, however, he thinks, some will very likely hold obstinately to their legal rights and institutions, notwithstanding the deliverance of their nation, and the glory with which the truth shall then flourish.
II. The subjects of the tribulation. These, apparently, are twofold:
(1) The nations of apostate Christendom forming the great confederacy under the leadership of the infidel and final Antichrist, who is then to come to his end; and
(2) Israel or the Jews, whose great and final trouble it is to be, previous to their restoration as God’s covenant people,—“the time of Jacob’s trouble.” In regard to the former, the tribulation will apparently be both immediately from the hand of God, whose sacrifice their destruction is said to be, and who speaks of “raining upon the infidel leader, and his bands, and the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone;” and also mediately, through the instrumentality both of others and themselves, as God declares by the same prophet, that He will call for a sword against the invading enemy throughout all His mountains, while every man’s sword shall be against his fellow, and that He will “plead against him with pestilence and with blood” (Eze_38:21-22). In reference to Israel, the cause or instrument of the tribulation will apparently be the hostile power itself, whom God however brings up against them, and gives into his hand (Eze_38:16-17; Eze_39:23-24). The procuring cause of the tribulation in both cases is sin. On the part of the infidel leader and his followers and abettors throughout the nations, it is pride, infidelity, defiance of God, covetousness and rapacity, the enmity against God and His people culminating in one grand attack upon Israel now apparently prosperous and at ease in their own country (Eze_38:8-13). On the part of Israel, it is unbelief and rejection of their Saviour-King yet unrepented of and unforgiven (Eze_39:23-24), the curse called down upon themselves and their children now taking its full and final effect, when they shall have filled up the measure of their iniquity (Mat_27:25).
III. The greatness of it. It is here spoken of as unparalleled, and is so characterised by Jeremiah: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the day of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer_30:7). The same language used by the Saviour in reference to it. The unparalleled greatness of it seen both in the extent and intensity of it. Terrible indeed the tribulation that shall exceed that of the Deluge, the Cities of the Plain, Jerusalem in its siege and capture by the Chaldeans and then by the Romans, the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Its greatness inferred from the exhortation of Jesus to His disciples and people in every age: “Watch and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luk_21:36). The same to be inferred from the object of it. It is the day of recompenses, both in regard to Israel and the nations of Christendom, when the blood of God’s saints shed from the beginning shall be avenged on Jew and Gentile, when “the earth shall disclose her blood—the blood which she has been caused to drink,—and shall no more cover her slain” (Isa_26:21). Its greatness may be inferred also from its results. It is to terminate, in a general sense, not only the sins and sufferings of Israel but of the world at large, and to usher in a period of righteousness and peace that shall continue for at least a thousand years. It is in reference to that period that the prophetic Psalmist writes, “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the (war-) chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth” (Psa_46:8-10). It is as the result of it that God will turn upon the peoples a pure language, so that they shall all serve Him with one consent (Zep_3:8). The greatness of the tribulation may also be gathered from its character and the agents in it. Proceeding, as in great part it is to do, from the great infidel leader and his Antichristian host, whose coming as the Man of Sin, the Son of perdition, and that Wicked or Lawless one, is after the power and energy of Satan, it shall inaugurate a time of unbridled wickedness, fully-developed ungodliness, and daring God-defying infidelity; and who, in his fury at the evil tidings that are to reach him in the midst of his triumphant iniquity, shall “go forth to destroy and utterly to make away many.” Of all evil times it will be the most evil, faith being scarcely any longer to be found in the earth, few if any godly men left, those there are being hidden as in a pavilion in the chambers of God’s protection provided for them, and the restraints of His grieved and insulted Spirit being for the time withdrawn from the earth; a period of which the three years and a half at the commencement of the French Revolution, during which religion was publicly and openly proscribed, the Sabbath abolished, the Bible dragged through the streets of Paris at the tail of an ass, and a beautiful but profligate woman worshipped in the church of Notre Dame as the Goddess of Reason, may have been an instalment and a type. Physical disturbances and commotions seem to be indicated both by the prophets and the Saviour Himself, as accompanying these civil and religious ones; signs appearing in the heavenly bodies, and the powers of heaven being shaken, both as symbols and accompaniments of the distress of nations; the godly being taught to sing in the prospect of that time of trouble: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge: therefore will we not fear, although the earth be removed, and the mountains be cast into the depths of the sea: though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof” (Psa_46:2-3). Nothing is said in the text to indicate the duration of this time of trouble; but we may gather from other places that its brevity will be in proportion to its intensity. The godly are to hide themselves “for a little moment, till the indignation be overpast.” “A short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” For the elect’s sake “the days will be shortened,” for otherwise, according to the Saviour’s declaration, “no flesh should be saved” (Mat_24:22).
The subject calls for solemn thought and earnest preparation. That this time of great and unparalleled tribulation shall come cannot be questioned by any believer in Revelation. The words of a great writer, philosopher, and divine, now passed away, express the conclusion of a simple-minded, unbiassed reader of the Word: “I utterly despair,” said the late Dr. Chalmers, “of the universal prevalence of Christianity as the result of a painful missionary process. I look for its conclusive establishment through a widening passage of desolating judgments, with the utter demolition of our present civil and ecclesiastical structures.” [341] How near we may be to this predicted state of things, or how far off from it, it is impossible for any one to say. Whether perceptibly or not, we are doubtless approaching to it. Signs are not wanting to indicate that such is the case. “This gospel of the kingdom,” said the Saviour when speaking of that future period, “shall first be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations”—preached, not believed in—“and then shall the end come” (Mat_24:14). This is rapidly taking place. Missionary operations are constantly multiplying. So also are infidelity and its agencies. It has recently been said by a high authority, that religion seems to be unsettled, and almost going away from various countries. [342] The rapidity with which great changes at present take place is the subject of general remark. A few years may suffice to bring the predicted period. For ought we know, the present living generation may see and participate in the great tribulation. It is for all to seek earnestly to secure for themselves and others a place of security in time, while the doors of the provided ark are open. “Seek righteousness; seek meekness; it may be ye may be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zep_2:3). The present time is to be embraced by earnestly laying hold of the gracious covenant held out to us in Christ, and persuading others also to do the same; and thus being prepared for the time when it will be said, in connection with predicted judgments, “Gather My saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice” (Psa_50:5). “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little: blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Psa_2:12).
[341] The same writer, in his “Sabbath Scripture Readings” on Revelation 15. says: “Can this sea of glass on which the saints might stand and look on the execution of God’s righteous sentence on the earth at large,—can it be what my friend Edward Irving imagined it to be,—one country in the world that should stand exempted from the desolations which are to go abroad over the face of it, and that country to be the evangelical and missionary Britain, standing aloof from popery, and actuated generally and throughout, or at least infiuentially, though it might be partially, by a pure, and scriptural, and Protestant faith? The song of Moses, as commemorating the destruction of the enemies of the Church, and the Church’s safety as well as prospects, might well harmonise with the song of the Lamb; and both together might harmonise with the circumstances of that transition period, when plagues were to be sent down from heaven upon the earth, and, as the fruit of God’s judgments being made manifest, all nations were to come and worship before Him.”
[342] “Any one,” said Cardinal Newman lately in a sermon at Birmingham, “who looked into the news of the day, would see quite enough in the state of things at home and abroad, to understand the great need of intercession. There was certainly a very dark prospect before them with regard to religion; and without saying whether the troubles were greater or less than those which had previously tried the Church, they had a depth which, to those who only saw the present, was more serious and more dangerous than any depth that had been.”
HOMILETICS
SECT. XLV.—THE DELIVERANCE OF THE JEWS. (Chap. Dan_12:1, last clause.)
The object for which the angel was sent to Daniel was to communicate to him what should befall his people in the latter days. He had already intimated to him the coming of Messiah at a definite period, with the calamities which should follow their wicked rejection of Him even to the time of the end. These calamities, however, were to culminate, as the end approached, in a time of trouble such as had never yet been since there was a nation. It is now promised, however, for the comfort of Daniel and his godly countrymen, that his people should be delivered out of that tribulation, at least a portion of them,—“every one that shall be found written in the book.” We notice, in connection with this promised deliverance—
I. The deliverance itself. “Thy people shall be delivered.” Daniel’s people were the Jews, the descendants, with himself, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; those for whom he had so earnestly prayed, and whose sins he had so penitently confessed (chap, 9.) The whole twelve tribes are included. These, in consequence of Solomon’s apostasy, had indeed been divided into two kingdoms, those of Judah and Israel; the former consisting of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the latter of the remaining ten (1Ki_11:9-13). They formed, however, but one people, and were yet again to be united in one kingdom (Eze_37:16-24). Those constituting the kingdom of Israel, having been the first to apostatise to idolatry, were the first to be led captive from their own land, which was done by the Assyrians, who placed them in various cities of the Medes (2Ki_15:29; 2Ki_17:5-6). The two tribes forming the kingdom of Judah, having imitated the apostasy of the kingdom of Israel, were carried captive, on three separate occasions, by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon. It was more especially those two tribes who returned to Judea after the edict of Cyrus; and of these only a portion. The whole twelve tribes, however, were regarded as existing in the days of the apostles, though mostly scattered among the Gentiles (Act_26:6-7; Jas_1:1; Joh_7:35). It is more especially those who formed the kingdom of Judah, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with a sprinkling from the other tribes, that are now known as Jews, the ten tribes being as yet comparatively unknown, though doubtless to be found in various parts of the world. It seems to be more especially those of the kingdom of Judah that are here indicated, as it appears to be they who shall be found in Jerusalem and Judea at the period referred to (Zec_12:2; Zec_12:4; Zec_12:6-10). These apparently intended to be the means of seeking out and bringing back their scattered brethren after their own conversion and acceptance of the Saviour (Isa_66:19-22). Even of those, however, who, being in Judea and Jerusalem at the time of the great tribulation under their final adversary, only a portion will be delivered. [343] Zechariah predicts that in all the land two-thirds should be cut off and die, but the third should be left therein, to be brought through the fire and refined as silver is refined, and be made God’s people, not merely in name as before, but in reality and truth (Zec_13:8-9). They are here spoken of as those “written in the book;” that book being doubtless the secret register of those whom, as an elect remnant, it was the Lord’s sovereign purpose to spare, as the nucleus of the future Church of Abraham’s seed; and doubtless those who, according to the prophet’s exhortation, had truly and in time sought righteousness and meekness, and under the outpoured Spirit of grace and supplication had looked to Him whom they had pierced, and had mourned because of Him, and had thus been led to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness (Zec_12:10; Zec_13:1). Such a book frequently referred to as “the book of life,” or “of the living” (Php_4:3; Rev_3:5; Rev_13:8; Luk_10:35; Exo_32:35; Psa_69:28). The deliverance is, in the first instance, one from death by the sword of the enemy. According to Zechariah, all nations will be gathered at that time, doubtless under this same infidel chief, against Jerusalem; and the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the inhabitants shall go into captivity; but “the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city” (Zec_14:2). This residue doubtless the remnant in the text. This deliverance from death, however, to be followed with a still more important and blessed one, the deliverance from spiritual death and introduction into Messiah’s kingdom.
[343] “Every one that shall be found written,” &c. According to Professor Lee and others, these are not to be the Jews at large, but the holy remnant who embraced Jesus as the Messiah, and escape to carry the tidings of salvation to the ends of the earth. Speaking of Isa_24:6, “Few men left,” Dr. Chalmers remarks: “a remnant, however, will be left, and a good remnant; and this not confined to the land of Israel, but among all the neighbouring countries that had been laid waste; for the voice of praise was to arise from the sea and from the isles, and this too to God as the Lord God of Israel. This voice was to arise from the midst of cruel sufferings, even ‘in the fires’ wherewith (Dan_12:6) the houses were burnt by their invaders.” He adds: “In this prophecy is foreshown a visitation upon the earth still future, which is to emerge in the Millennium—how emphatically told in this place!—when the Lord shall reign in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.”
II. The agency employed in effecting it. This is said to be “Michael,” called elsewhere “Michael your prince,” and “the prince that standeth up for the children of thy people.” [344] In the New Testament called Michael the archangel (Jud_1:9). Represented in the book of Revelation as, in conjunction with the angels under him, fighting with the devil and his angels (Rev_12:7). He appears especially charged with the defence of God’s ancient people. The ministry of angels with their allotment to various charges already referred to under chap. 10. Michael, as the chief of the angel princes, and especial intrusted with the defence and care of Israel, naturally introduced in this their final conflict with the powers of this world, under the leadership of one whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and deceivableness (2Th_2:9), and against whom, with his mighty force, it might seem impossible that Israel should be able to stand. Quite in accordance with the economy of God’s providential government of the Church and the world, to employ angelic agency for the accomplishment of His purposes, whether of mercy or of judgment. In what particular manner Michael executes the charge committed to him on this occasion, it is not for us to inquire. An angel smote in one night a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians that lay encamped about Jerusalem. “The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.” In a thousand ways of which we have now no conception the angelic agents fulfil their ministry.
[344] “Michael.” Regarded by Calvin and some others of the older commentators as Christ Himself. So Hävernick interprets the text of the first appearance of Christ. Most understand Michael to be the archangel. Dr. Cox thinks that the standing up of Michael for Daniel’s people corresponds with the going forth of Him who is called Faithful and True upon the white horse; the trouble here predicted agreeing with the mighty overthrow of the Antichristian powers, who are to be cast into the “lake burning with brimstone,” as there represented. Brightman thinks Michael to be some certain angel, whose ministry the great Prince will employ in that battle.
III. The results of the deliverance. The deliverance, in the first instance, was one from the sword of Antichrist and his infidel host. It is also the deliverance of Israel from their last oppressor, and the termination of that captivity under which, in consequence of their unbelief and rejection of their divine King and Saviour, they had lain for so many centuries, as the curse which their fathers who crucified their King called down upon themselves and their children. The time of their rejection by God, and their scattering and crushing under the hand of the Gentiles into which they had been delivered, will now come to an end. The “seven times” of punishment that were to pass over them for their sin will now have expired. The time to favour Zion, even the set time, will now have come. He that had scattered Israel is now, according to the promise, to gather him. [345] The threatenings and the curses had in righteous judgment been executed, and now in like manner the promises made to their fathers were in unmerited mercy to be fulfilled also. The curse can now be removed and the blessing bestowed, because Israel, through the Spirit of grace and supplication poured upon them, will have penitently accepted their long-rejected King and Saviour. They will have been brought, with the veil removed from their hearts, to say in faith, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” and their house is to remain no longer desolate. They are now to be betrothed in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, in mercies, and in faithfulness,—to be betrothed for ever (Hos_2:19-20). The blindness that in part overtook Israel as the result of their rejection of their Messiah, was to be taken away when the fulness of the times of the Gentiles should be come in, when all Israel should be saved. That time will now have come. The Deliverer was to come out of Zion to them that turn from ungodliness in Jacob, and to those who have looked on their once pierced Redeemer. That Deliverer now comes. He comes to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and to graft the natural branches, broken off on account of unbelief, again into their own olive tree. The casting away of Israel for a time was the reconciling of the world; the receiving back of them again was to be to that same world “life from the dead.” [346] They are now to be restored to the high and holy position originally intended for them, as a kingdom of priests unto God in the service of humanity. [347] A mere external deliverance without this spiritual one would have left Israel but as they were. But now the new covenant is to be made with them, in virtue of which, while their iniquities are all forgiven, God’s law is put within their hearts and written indelibly on their minds by the Holy Ghost. That better covenant they accept when they look by faith on Him whom they pierced and mourn for Him, a covenant made through the sacrifice of the Son of God (Psa_50:5).
[345] Auberlen remarks: “The predictions contained in Lev_26:31-45; Deu_28:62-68; Deu_29:22; Deu_30:14; Deu_32:15-43, concerning Israel’s apostasy and dispersion among the heathen, and then concerning their conversion and glorious re-establishment in the Holy Land, were not exhaustively fulfilled in the short decennia of the Assyrian and Babylonian exile, and in the troublous centuries of the restoration that followed those captivities. On the contrary, the curse lies even this day on the Jewish nation; and the promised restoration awaits yet its fulfilment and realisation. For him who believes in the fulfilment of prophecy, it is only necessary to read the words of Scripture in order to be persuaded of this. The great commentary on the history of revelation is given us in the miraculous preservation of the Jewish nation through all centuries to our time, while other nationalities are either destroyed or have mixed to such an extent with other nations, that they are disfigured to such a degree that they can scarcely be recognised,—a preservation which is doubly miraculous; since Israel is dispersed in all countries of the earth, while other nations have their filed stationary residence.”
[346] “The conversion of Israel stands in a causal, and not merely temporal or chronological connection with the coming of Christ; and is succeeded by a new state of the world in which a new ‘life,’ in a greater, more richly characteristic fulness of Spirit, will spread from the people of God to all the nations of the earth; and in comparison with which the life of nations, during the preceding ages, might be called ‘death.’ The Apostle designates this new state of the world by the same expression which he uses when speaking of the regeneration of individuals, as ‘life from the dead’ (Rom_6:13, compare Eph_2:5; Col_2:13). As there is at present a regeneration of individuals, so in the future the life of nations, as such, shall be renewed: there shall be a world-regeneration. Quite in accordance with this is the expression used by our Lord when He denotes the new Æon or age Palingenesia, or ‘the regeneration’ (Mat_19:28); and by Peter when he designates it as ‘the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord’ (Act_3:19-21).”—Auberlen.
[347] “The people of Israel,” says Auberlen, “receives for all time the destiny to be the recipient and mediator of divine communications.” Referring to Exo_19:5-6, he says: “Israel stands in the same relation to humanity as a priest stands to the nation; a mediator in the relations of humanity to God. Hereby the relations of Israel are fixed; not merely for the times of the old covenant, during which Israel did not even exercise his priestly office as regards the heathen; but for all times and forever.… From the religious point of view, in their relation to God and Christ, as needing mercy and salvation, Gentiles and Jews stand on a perfect equality; the same righteousness is imputed to them; the same glory is given to them; they have the same participation in Christ, and by Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. We see this also in the transfigured (or glorified) church, which consists of both Jews and Gentiles. But from the standpoint of the history of revelation, as regards the way in which God uses men as instruments to bring about the objects of His kingdom, the case is altogether different. From this point of view, Israel is, and ever shall be, the chosen people through which God executes His plans concerning humanity.”
We may make one reflection. The deliverance in the text suggests the deliverance which every individual, whether Jew or Gentile, needs, and that which, procured by the Son of God incarnate for us, is freely held out to each in the Gospel; that with which no external deliverance is once to be compared, but of which Israel’s deliverance from their external enemies is a type. It is deliverance from the curse of a broken law from the deserved wrath of God, from the dominion of sin, from the power of Satan, and from the pains of eternal death. It is deliverance from a tribulation with which that of Israel under Antichrist, great as it will be, is only as a shadow; a tribulation from which, beyond a certain period, deliverance will be impossible. “After death, the judgment.” It is a deliverance, too, Which, like that of Israel in the text, places the subjects of it in the glorious position of kings and priests to God. This deliverance also, like that in the text, is experienced in looking through the Spirit of grace and supplication, believingly and penitently, on Him whom we too, by our sins and unbelief, have pierced, and, as penitents, washing our guilty souls in the fountain of a Redeemer’s blood, opened for sin and for uncleanness. That deliverance is freely offered in the Gospel. A believing, humble, hearty acceptance of it makes it our own. And it is to be accepted now. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain thy people
thy people
That is, Daniel’s people, the Jews. Cf. Dan 9:15; Dan 9:16; Dan 9:20; Dan 9:24; Dan 10:14.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 12 The Great Tribulation and Israel’s Deliverance “
CHAPTER 12 The Great Tribulation and Israel’s Deliverance “
And at that time.” What time? The time of the end, the time of trouble such as never was before; the same time to which our Lord refers in Mat 24:21.
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Michael, the great prince which standeth for the Jewish people, is now also mentioned again. He will stand up and take a leading part in the events of that time. From the book of Revelation we learn (chapter 12) that there will be war in heaven, that is where Satan has his dominion now as the prince of the power of the air. Michael, assisted by his angels, will cast out the great dragon, the devil and his angels. They will be forced down to the earth. Then when Satan and his angels are cast out the great tribulation will be institutedRev 12:12. Michael will stand up in another sense and take a definite part in the deliverance of Daniel’s people. It is not fully revealed what that will be.
The deliverance of which we read in these verses and the awakening of those “who sleep in the dust of the earth” has likewise been grossly misinterpreted. Because expositors have not seen the application of all this to the Jews in their future history in the land, they have read the church in here, and even what they term a general resurrection on a general judgment day. But we shall see now what is meant by the deliverance of Daniel’s people.
Physical resurrection (as so often stated: a general resurrection) is not taught in the second verse. Physical resurrection is used as a figure of the national revival of Israel in that day. They have been sleeping nationally in the dust of the earth, buried among the Gentiles. But at that time there will take place a national restoration, a bringing together of the house of Judah and of Israel. It is the same figure as used in the vision of the dry bones in Eze 37:1-28. This vision is employed by the men, who have invented the theory of a second chance and larger hope for the wicked dead to back up their evil teaching, but anyone can see that it concerns not the Gentiles but the Jewish people and that it is not a bodily resurrection, but a national revival and restoration of that people. Their national graves, not literal burying places, will be opened and the Lord will bring them forth out of all the countries into which they have been scattered.
There will be two classes, the godly and the ungodly. The ungodly accept the false Messiah, and in their national revival, shame and everlasting contempt awaits them, while the others, the godly, will enjoy life in the kingdom. The wise in verse 3 are the Jewish teachers and witnesses in the end time, those which compose the godly remnant. A special reward will be theirs during the kingdom, they shall shine as the stars forever. The same holds good, only in a higher sense for all those who are witnesses for Him during this age, who are faithful to Christ.
Then Daniel is addressed and beholds angels once more, as well Him who appeared clothed in linen, none other than the Lord. Then Daniel asked his final question.
Dan 12:11-12 have puzzled many readers of the book. Different theories are given.
But what is the meaning of these 1,290 and 1,335 days? Can there be anything plainer than the fact that these 1,290 and 1,335 days are literal days? Who authorizes us to make of these days years? By what process of exposition are we to arrive at the conclusion that “days” mean “years?” It is worse than folly to do that.
Now, the great tribulation lasts for 1,260 days. But here we have 30 days or a whole month added. The Lord will be manifested at the close of the great tribulation of 1,260 days, 3-1/2 years. Mat 24:29-51 teaches us this. The extra month will in all probability be needed to make possible certain judgment events especially with the overthrow of the nations which came against Jerusalem and the judgment of nations as given in Mat 25:31. We cannot speak dogmatically on all this. But certain it is that 1,335 days after the Antichristian abomination had been set up in Jerusalem, that is, 75 days, or 2-1/2 months beyond the time of the great tribulation, the full blessing for Israel and the establishment of the glorious rule of Israel’s King, the once rejected Lord Jesus Christ, will have come, for it is written, “Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand, three hundred and five and thirty days.” This is as far as any teacher can safely go, and here we would rest.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Deliverance of the Lord’s People
The Deliverance of the Lord’s People
v. 1. And at that time, at the end of the present world age, shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, as the heavenly protector of Israel, Dan 10:13-21; and there shall be a time of trouble, of tribulation and affliction for the believers, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time, the climax of the oppression brought upon the spiritual Israel by all antichristian forces; and at that time thy people, the true believers, shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book, whose name had been entered in the book of life. Cf Rev 13:8.
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v. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, literally, "many, a great multitude of those who sleep in the dust-land, shall awake," shall return to life in the final resurrection, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt, this being the division at the Last Judgment, the believers destined for heaven, the unbelievers to hell with its torments.
v. 3. And they that be wise, the true teachers of the people, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, in a wonderful glorification, and they that turn many to righteousness, by instructing them in loyalty and faithfulness in the midst of the tribulations of the latter days, as the stars forever and ever, this statement being rightly applied to the work of faithful preachers of the; Gospel in these latter days of corruption and apostasy.
v. 4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, so that its contents, for the present, would not be revealed to men, even to the time of the end, the present Messianic era; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased, literally, "many shall search it through, and thus understanding will become great. " It is true in general that the knowledge and interpretation of the prophecies of old comes to those who search the Scriptures most carefully, diligently comparing prophecy and fulfillment as indicated in the directions of the Lord. Cf Joh 5:39.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
The angel who appeared to Daniel in Daniel 10:5 continues speaking.
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Michael, the great prince
Michael is an archangel. Here he is also given the title "great prince."
Michael ... will rise up
Here "rise up" is an idiom that means to appear. AT: "Michael ... will appear" (See: Idiom)
your people will be saved
This can be stated in active form. You can also make it clear that God will save the people. AT: "God will save your people" (See: Active or Passive and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
whose name is found written in the book
This can be stated in active form. You can also make it clear that God writes names in the book. AT: "whose name God has written in the book" (See: Active or Passive and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
those who sleep in the dust of the earth will rise up
The phrase "sleep in the dust of the earth" is another way of referring to those who have died. Here "rise up" is an idiom that means to come back to life. AT: "those who have died will come back to life" (See: Euphemism and Idiom)
translationWords
time
Michael
prince
raise
trouble
nation
save
asleep
earth
eternity
life
shame
contempt
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 12:1-7 At that time, the time of the end,…
12:1-7 At that time, the time of the end, God will rescue his people and defeat every enemy—even death.
12:1 Michael was Israel’s patron angel (cp. 10:13, 21; Rev 2:1, 8, 12). • the book: This is possibly the Book of Truth (Dan 10:21; cp. 7:10). • will be rescued: All previous rescues of God’s people in Daniel (e.g., 3:28; 6:27) had foreshadowed, and now culminated in, the resurrection from the dead (12:2-3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.